AMMAN - Jordan's national carrier Royal Jordanian (RJ) on Wednesday became the latest airline to announce it was cancelling scheduled flights to Baghdad.
"There will be no flights to Baghdad either on Thursday or on Friday," a company source said.
At present, RJ flies from Amman to the Iraqi capital four days a week, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with United Nations authorisation.
"Yesterday's (Tuesday's) flight was delayed but did fly to Baghdad and the plane has returned to Amman," the official said.
According to aviation specialists in Amman, Jordanian airspace will be closed as soon as the US-led military operation against Iraq gets underway.
The entire RJ fleet will operate out of Athens.
Royal Jordanian had earlier indicated it would continue its Amman to Baghdad connection as long as Iraqi airspace remained open.
On Tuesday, two Syrian carriers stopped flights to Baghdad and British Airways announced the suspension of its services to Israel and Kuwait.
Syrian flag carrier Syrian Arab Airlines, which does not offer a Baghdad service, said its flights remained unchanged for the time being.
EgyptAir, which has been badly hit by a drastic cut in the number of passengers passing through Cairo, is regrouping many of its flights for financial reasons as certain routes have been flying only a quarter full.
Since the end of February, Gulf airlines Emirates, based in Dubai, Gulf Air, which has its headquarters in Bahrain, and Qatar Airways have indicated they had contingency plans to allow them to continue flying in the event of war once air corridors in the region were made safe.
Qatar Airways and Kuwait Airways were planning to move their hubs to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Iran Air also foresaw a cut in the number of flights due to safety fears forcing people to opt out of travelling.
Thai Airways, which serves Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait and Muscat, said flights to some of these destinations would be halted in the event of war.
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