Iraq airline signs deal with Boeing

The deals “will strengthen the Iraqi civil aviation capacity and enable it to respond to the increasing demand for air transportation to and from Iraq,” al-Dabbagh said.

 

The website for Iraqi Airlines said the company is looking to begin flights to Europe in the next few months.

Flight routes

Iraqi Airways, which currently owns two aircraft and leases others, was badly hit by UN economic sanctions imposed after the first Gulf war in 1990.

The airline flew its 17 aircraft out of Iraq in response to the restrictions. Six of its aeroplanes are parked at Amman airport, Jordan, while others are grounded in Tunisia and Iran.

The carrier resumed international flights in September 2004 with a Baghdad-Amman service.

It now operates also to Cairo, Damascus, Beirut and Dubai as well the Iraqi cities of Irbil, Sulaimaniyah and Basra.

Just before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 the company paid Airbus, a European aircraft maker, $10m for four planes, shipments that never arrived due to UN sanctions.

Jordan regards the aircraft in Amman as part of millions of dollars of Iraqi assets frozen in the kingdom.