TEHRAN – Flights from Iran to the Iraqi city of Basrah will be resumed today, following a temporary suspension over the outbreak of the coronavirus, a senior Iranian aviation official has said.

Wearing masks and following health protocols during the flights as well as carrying a health certificate with a negative coronavirus PCR test result is mandatory for travelers, IRIB quoted Maqsoud As’adi-Samani as saying on Saturday.

Although issuing visas on arrival for tourists has been suspended, Iraqis with Iranian spouses and their children, Iraqis residing in Iran or those seeking medical treatment in Iran, as well as students and businessmen can travel to the country.

Over the past couple of months, many countries, including the Islamic Republic, imposed travel restrictions to help curb the spread of novel coronavirus. In this line, incoming and outgoing flights have been suspended, and road travels restricted to a great extent.

The pandemic has taken a huge toll on Iran’s civil aviation sector with reports showing that airlines lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of flight cancellations during the busy New Year travel season in late March.

Some experts expect Iran to achieve a tourism boom after coronavirus contained, believing its impact would be temporary and short-lived for a country that ranked the third fastest-growing tourism destination in 2019.

The latest available data show eight million tourists visited the Islamic Republic during the first ten months of the past Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2019).

ABU/MG