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 .
Iraqi Airways was founded in
1945 . The first planes used were
Dragon Rapide s. For the next fiscal decade, until
1955 , these planes were alternated with
Vickers Viscount s. 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.
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.
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 it 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 ir 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.
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 .
Iraqi Airways serves the following domestic and international scheduled destinations, or is in negotiations for these destinations. (as of August
2005 ):
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.
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 .
