LOT among the hopefuls to resume flights to Baghdad

Iraqi officials have invited several airlines, including national carrier LOT, to place an offer to provide regular flights to Baghdad. "We intend to follow this up," said company spokesman Leszek Chorzewski. The Iraqi administration plans to allow carriers from outside the Middle East to schedule seven flights a week to Baghdad. LOT would like to service two of them on the Warsaw-Beirut-Baghdad route. "We could launch the connections in the second half of August," said Chorzewski, adding that the undertaking might turn out to be very interesting, and besides Warsaw could fulfill transit functions. An unofficial advantage LOT has, is the fact that the chairman of its supervisory board is Marek Belka, who is also the deputy director of the Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid Office in Iraq. (Parkiet, July 12-14, p. 3) M.M.