Airliner: Airline of the week

America is currently at war with Iraq. Some people think you can't fly into Iraq, but trust me you still can. Iraqi Airways(IATA:IA ICAO:IAW) the national airline of Iraq based in Baghdad International Airport(IATA:SDA ICAO:ORBI) is a current member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization. The airline was founded in 1946 and began operations with Dragon Rapide and Vickers Viscount aircraft.

Then in the 1960s Iraqi Airways placed an order for the Tupolev Tu-124 and the Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft to increase service in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Also in 1960s Iraqi ordered a few Ilyushin Il-76 for cargo flights. Then in the 1970s Iraqi ordered the Boeing 707 and Later the Boeing 747-200 for service to JFK airport. The Iran-Iraq war did undermine Iraqi's operations a little bit. Then in the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 all Iraqi Airways flights are grounded due to the United Nations sanctions against Iraq.

Iraqi Airways at the time had 17 aircraft, and the airline moved all aircraft to secret places. In May 1991 The United Nations allowed the airline to fly helicopter services for domestic routes, but these flights were limited however. Due to cease-fire terms all fixed wing flights were not allowed, the United Nations security council did agree to allow these domestic routes to start again. In January 1992 these flights started using Soviet Antonov An-24 aircraft. Later a United Nations ruling the flights were halted.

Later after the war in Iraq in 2003 Iraqi Airways announced they are planning to restart international flights. The rights to the airline's name got transferred to a new and indepentent airline which was called Air Iraq Company. Air Iraq would help build a new Iraqi Airways and would also protect Iraqi Airways from legal related problems from Saddam Hussien's regime. Finally on October 3, 2004 Iraqi Airways started flying again with their first flight from Baghdad to Amman. Then on June 4, 2005 for the first time since the ending of Hussien's regime Iraqi started their domestic flights started again with the first from Baghdad to Basra with 100 passengers on board a Boeing 727-247.

For the first time in 25 years on November 6, 2005 Iraqi flew a flight from Baghdad to Tehran. The airline's present fleet on its behalf of the Jordanian airline Teebah Airlines. Later in the summer of 2005 Iraqi Airways started more service to Arbil, and Sulaymaniyah. The present destinations that Iraqi Airways serves are: Amman, Athens, Baghdad, Basra, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Dubai, Erbil, Kuwait City, London, Sulaymaniyah, and Tehran. The airline is planning to start service to Beijing, Delhi, Frankfurt, Karachi, and New York City in the future.

The airline's present fleet includes 1 Boeing 707, 1 Boeing 727-200, 3 Boeing 737-200, 3 Boeing 747SP, 3 Boeing 747-200, 3 Boeing 757, 1 Boeing 767-200, and one Ilyushin Il-76. The airline has placed an order for five Boeing 737-400 which will be aquired on a lease. The airline did have five orders for the Airbus A310 but the A310 is out of production. So these orders will never be delivered. For more info on Air Iraq go to www.airiraqco.com. To book your Iraqi Airways flight go to www.iraqiairways.co.uk.

below: An Iraqi Airways
Boeing 727-2H3/Adv with no
engines at Baghdad International
Airport.