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Iraq

Iraq Airways Plans to Resume Service

2003-05-29

EFL.
BAGHDAD - Iraq's national carrier, hard-hit by two wars and 13 years of U.N. sanctions, is preparing to resume service after a three-month hiatus, its management said Thursday.
Wonder if they can get contracts to fly UN personnel around the world?
In an announcement to employees, Iraq Airways officials said the once-profitable company was working with the U.S.-led coalition to get flying again. The statement said the U.S.-led Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance was working to complete the technical preparations that would enable flights to resume. ``After that Iraqi Airways flights will resume, but this will take some time,'' said the statement, from manager of flight operations Halid el-Quaisee.

On Wednesday, the U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq announced that flight restrictions in place since 1990 had been removed following the Security Council's decision last week to lift sanctions. The state-owned airline has been grounded since the start of the U.S.-led coalition offensive against Iraq in March. Several of its jetliners, maintenance facilities and offices at Baghdad International Airport — formerly known as Saddam International Airport — are said to have been damaged or destroyed in the fighting. Other aircraft remain parked at airports in Syria and Jordan. Its head office at the airport was taken over by the U.S. military in April, and the main terminal is still used as a makeshift barracks. American officials haven't said when they will hand over the airport, or those in Basra and Mosul, to civilian aviation authorities. The fortunes of Iraqi Airways declined steadily over the past two decades, and it was not clear how soon it will be ready fly again. ``Nobody seems to be in charge anymore,'' said Hassan Dixon, a flight engineer who reported for work at a downtown building that used to house the airlines' staff club. ``We have no instructions from management.''
We could send them some managers from United, but that might make things worse.

Southwest would probably be better. Maybe some Air America execs, if they want to branch out into other things. Diversification, y'know...

In the 1970s, the state-owned airline was considered one of the fastest-growing in the Middle East. Its aircraft — with their distinctive green-and-white paint scheme — included Boeing 707s, 727s, 747s and Russian-built Il-76 cargo jets. That expansion ended with the start of the Iraq-Iran war in 1980. Just before the 1991 Gulf War, the airline's 15 Boeings were flown to Jordan, Iran and Tunisia. The airline has not been able to retrieve all of them, and Baghdad claimed Iran's national carrier put some of those planes into its own fleet.
Good luck getting them back!

I think they just added another one, from Angola, today...

Iraqi Airways was grounded for several years after the war because of U.N. sanctions that made procuring spare parts impossible. The company's in-flight catering department sold meals and pastries at Baghdad supermarkets to raise money. The airline resumed limited domestic service in the mid-1990s when spare parts again became available under the oil-for-food program. Flights linked Baghdad with Mosul and Basra, but they were again suspended in March as the latest conflict began.

Posted by:Steve White

#2 Yes, you see, in the koran it's Allah will to keep your neighbors power tools when it's a valuable thing unto yourself. Ask any mullah. Yes, yes, you just have to read it.

Posted by: Lucky 2003-05-29 11:25:44

#1 OK but how much range do you get out of wound up rubber bands. Of course if they could find the Bahgdad Bob he could supply enough hot air to keep the bird's engines running

Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire 2003-05-29 17:04:53

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