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Iraqi Airways

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Iraqi Airways is the largest airline of Iraq. The airline is a national carrier as it operates domestic, regional, and international services. Its main hub is in Baghdad International Airport. Today, the Iraqi Airways brand is owned by a new and separate company.

Iraqi Airways is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

Contents

History

Beginnings

Iraqi Airways was founded in 1945. The first planes used were Dragon Rapides. For the next fiscal decade, until 1955, these planes were alternated with Vickers Viscounts. By 1955, however, the Viscounts took over all of Iraqi Airways' services.

The 1960s arrived, and so did the jet age. Iraqi Airways was quick to modernize, buying Russian built Tupolev Tu-124 planes as well as British built Trident aircraft. These jets allowed Iraqi Airways to increase service across the Middle East, to Africa and Europe. During that time, cargo airplanes such as the Ilyushin Il-76 arrived.

During the 1970s, Iraqi Airways was granted a route to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, and because of that, it needed a bigger jet, so it went to (then) Seattle based Boeing and bought Boeing 707 jets. Soon after, the Boeing 747 also arrived. In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq, in a moment that would later prove to be a turning point for the airline.

Decline

Iraqi Airways kept flying during the 1980s to most cities where it had established routes to. The Iran-Iraq War did little to undermine the airline's activities. Since Iraq's invasion in 1990 of Kuwait, Iraqi Airways was grounded by the United Nations' sanctions against Iraq. Before the invasion started, Iraqi Airways had 17 jets, all of which were moved to secret locations, mainly in Jordan.

Through that ordeal, many of the airline's 800 employees stayed faithful, and their mechanics supposedly even owned Iraq's only jet engine, where they would practice in hopes the airline would someday need their services as much as it once did.

Because Iraqi Airways was allowed to fly domestically, it continued service to smaller cities, such as Basra. These restarted in January 1992 from Baghdad to Basra using Antonov An-24 aircraft. However, domestic flights became a rarity too, because of the No-Fly Zone imposed by the United States and United Kingdom over Iraqi skies. On occasions, Iraqi Airways would also fly pilgrims to Muslim religious cities during the '90s.

Revival

The interest on international flights was revived after the War in Iraq, but only after a long period of little domestic aviation activity. Eventually, the airline regained an international status so that it may begin negotiations with other countries for operating an international network.

On May 30, 2003, Iraqi Airways' management officially announced plans to resume international service soon. The rights to the Iraqi Airways name was transferred to a new and separate company called Air Iraq Company who will build a new airline out of the historic brand, and protect it from the legal problems related to the regime of Saddam Hussein. Operations restarted on 3 October 2004 with a flight between Baghdad and Amman.

Iraqi Airways operated the first domestic commercial scheduled service since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime from Baghdad to Basra, with 100 passengers in a Boeing 727-247, on 4 June 2005. On 6 November 2005, Iraqi Airways operated a flight from Baghdad to Tehran, Iran, for the first time in 25 years. The aircraft, as with the rest of the fleet, is operated on its behalf by Teebah Airlines of Jordan. Services to Arbil and Sulaymaniyah were added in summer 2005.

Incidents and accidents

Iraqi Airways has had, to date, ten air tragedies.

In 1986 a Boeing 737 of Iraqi Airways, flying from Saddam International Airport in Baghdad to Jordan, was attacked by terrorists. Although the plane tried to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, the terrorists threw a bomb into the plane's cockpit, and its destruction caused the plane to crash resulting in the deaths of 61 of the 103 people on board. See also Iraqi Airways Hijacking.

Services

Iraqi Airways serves the following domestic and international scheduled destinations, or is in negotiations for these destinations. (as of August 2005):

Fleet

There are still some Iraqi Airways jets in storage in middle eastern countries neighbouring Iraq, such as Tunisia, Jordan and Iran. Of these, there are 2 Boeing 707-300C stored in Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. The aircraft left at Baghdad International Airport are unflyable as all their engines and instruments have been removed. It was announced on 30 September 2005 that Iran will repair and return 5 of their aircraft stored there to Iraqi Airways.

The Iraqi Airways operational fleet consists of the following aircraft (at January 2005):

The airline has orders for 5 Airbus A310-300 aircraft, a deal made in the early nineties before Iraq invaded Kuwait. The Iraqi government expressed interest in rekindling the deal so that the A310 jets be delivered, or in modifying the agreement so that Airbus A330 jets be delivered instead.

Livery

Iraqi Airways currently has contracts with Schabak and with Nostalgair to produce their airplane models. The airline's livery consists of an all white airplane's belly, but with a green cheatline and an aqua green scheme covering the top of their planes. The aqua color goes all the way to the end of the planes' tails. The tail logo consists of a green bird inside a white circle, with the name Iraqi Airways inscribed just below the circle, in white color and in Arabic. The same title is also inscribed over the passenger windows on the front part of the fuselage, using the same color but written in English.

External links

References


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