Review of Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Erbil in Business

I went to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan for a short holiday. There are not too many options from Europe. Most people fly with Austrian or Turkish. It’s also possible to connect through the Middle-East with Egyptair, Emirates, MEA, Pegasus, Qatar or Royal Jordanian but all these mean longer flight times and higher prices. There are also three airlines from Iraq that fly directly from Europe to Erbil. The most notable is FlyErbil (operated by UR Airlines) with flights from Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Istanbul and Munich. FlyBaghdad and Iraqi Airways also fly between Istanbul and Erbil. These airlines are not very well known outside of Iraq and can be difficult to book. There’s also a twice-weekly Eurowings flight from Düsseldorf.

I originally booked the following flights:
Amsterdam to Vienna, Austrian, economy
Vienna to Erbil, Austrian, economy
Erbil to Istanbul, FlyBaghdad, economy
Istanbul to Amsterdam, Turkish Airlines, business

But I had the following flights:
Amsterdam to Vienna, Austrian, business
Vienna to Erbil, Austrian, business
Erbil to Istanbul, Turkish Airlines, business
Istanbul to Amsterdam, Turkish Airlines, business

I booked a one-way flight in economy class from Amsterdam to Vienna to Erbil for an extremely low price of 233€. Business class would have been 1046€ and the price difference did not seem to be reasonable for an intra-European business class product. But I was first offered an upgrade for the flight from Amsterdam to Vienna for 130€ and later from Vienna to Erbil for 175€ so I paid a total of 538€ to fly in business class instead of 1046€. This is much better value.

My connecting flight from Amsterdam arrived late so I didn’t have time to go to the lounge.  

There was a short waiting time at passport control. The non-Schengen departures are mostly from Gates G.

Boarding was through automatic gates. Only the boarding cards were checked, not the passports. Priority boarding is of course included in business class tickets but the gate agents just let all passengers in at the same time.

Boarding was by bus. We had a nice view of our aircraft in the beautiful autumn weather. This plane is OE-LBL, an A320-200 built in 2023. I think I know this plane. Wait… Yes! I took it a few hours earlier for my connecting flight from Amsterdam. 

There were three rows of business class in a Eurobusiness configuration: 3+3 economy seats with the middle seat blocked. 

Load was 9/12 plus a non-flying pilot.

Legroom was good for a Eurobusiness configuration. 

Our expected flight route:

Most passengers in business class seemed to be well dressed business people and officials. Most passengers in economy class seemed to be Kurdish people living in Europe going home for holidays - everybody was in a very good mood.

An amenity kit was offered shortly after boarding. 

An expected flight time 3 hours and 20 minutes was announced.

We started to taxi at 10.25 and we took off at 10.30 for a scheduled departure time of 10.15.

A hot towel was offered 20 minutes after take-off.  

Here is the printed menu card:

Drink orders were taken about 25 minutes after take-off. I asked for some white wine of which two types were available. The extremely friendly cabin crew offered me to try both of them and both of them were very good. I choose some Welschriesling and some coke.  

The meal was served on a tray.

 The Garden Fresh Salad was nothing special. 

Three types of bread were offered and they were excellent.

The Red Pepper Curd Spread was a very original appetizer and it was excellent. 

There was a choice of two mains: Beef Burger and Vegetable Machboos. Neither of them was as I expected. The burger was without the bun and the Machboos (also called kabsa), a Middle-Eastern rice dish, looked more like a curry. I first ordered the Machboos but I asked to change it to the burger – no problem.

Beef Burger – Sweet Corn Mash, Green Beans, Capers, Olives. It was very tasty. 

Banana Bread, Berry Ragout, Vanilla Sauce

The meal was altogether very good. It was much better than a typical intra-European business class meal.

I spent the remaining time reading. There is no IFE (in-flight entertainment) on this route.

The cabin crew in charge of the business cabin checked on the passengers many times to see if anything was needed.

Approaching Erbil.  

Descent into Erbil was unusual. We were at an altitude of 16,500 feet nearly above the airport only 8 minutes before landing. We then descended at a rate of up 3,000 feet per minute with sharp left turns.

We landed at 14.55. The captain applied heavy reverse thrust after landing. We were at the gate exactly at 15.00 for a scheduled arrival time of 15.00.

The airport is modern.

I got the visa at the airport in just five minutes. No questions were asked, no advance paperwork was needed. I just had to pay 72$ by card.

Passport control took another five minutes.

Taxis and most other vehicles are not allowed to go the terminal building. There's a free and frequent shuttle bus that goes to the public car park a few kilometres from the airport.

I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel for 38,000 IQD (about 25$).

Erbil is the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan. Is it Iraq or Kurdistan? The inhabitants of this region have an Iraqi passport and use IQD (Iraqi dinar) as a currency but they have their own government, prime minister, head of state, political parties, laws, an education system in Kurdish, army, border control, flag, licence plates and many other symbols of an independent country. Iraqi Kurdistan is considered to be much safer than Iraq. I felt perfectly safe although the situation can change quite quickly.

Erbil has been inhabited for around 7,000 years. Downtown Erbil in the evening:  

The Citadel of Erbil is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Food is delicious with some of the best kebab in the world.

The old Iraqi licence plate with numbers in Arabic on the top and “Irak” and “Erbil” written in the bottom. The new Kurdish licence plates use Latin characters, although the Iraqi Kurdish language uses an alphabet similar to Arabic.

The road to Rawanduz.

Iraqi Kurdistan has many beautiful canyons. 

Market stalls.

The Syriac Orthodox Monastery of Mor Mattai was founded in 363. It’s one of the oldest working Christian Monasteries in the world.

This sign is in three languages: Syriac, a language that exists since the 1st Century; Arabic and English.

Lalish, a holy pilgrimage site for the Yazidis. The Yazidis are Kurdish people that have their own religion, Yazidism.

The Rabban Hormizd Monastery of the Chaldean Catholic Church was founded in 640. 

Thank you for reading my flight report.