"We had closed down our airspace following northern Iraq's referendum. We are opening our airspace as of today," Yildirim told reporters as quoted by the Daily Sabah newspaper.

Turkey imposed a ban on the international flights to and from the region as a response to the independence referendum in the region on September 25, viewed both by Baghdad and Ankara as illegal.

Following the vote, Iraq imposed sanctions on the Kurdish regional government, namely restricted banking operations, closed border crossings and banned international flights to and from the region.

In late January, local media reported that Iraqi Kurdistan's government had agreed with an Iraqi federal delegation to transfer the autonomy's airports to the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, which was one of Baghdad's main conditions for the resumption of flights to and from Kurdistan. On March 13, the Iraqi government lifted the ban on international flights to the autonomous region.

Reporter’s code: 50101