Iraqi Airways boosts its fleet with aircraft acquisitions
TRANSPORTATION | 2013-04-02
Iraqi Airways is set to acquire two new airplanes this year, raising to 20 the number of aircraft in its passenger fleet, officials said.

“Iraqi Airways will take delivery in July of its first Boeing 737, while the second will be delivered in September,” said Capt. Saad al-Khafajy, general director of the Transport Ministry’s Iraqi Airways Company.

The new planes will be assigned to short and medium air routes between Iraq and its neighbouring countries, as well as some nearby European and Asian destinations, al-Khafajy told Mawtani.

“The two 737s have specifications appropriate to Iraqi climate conditions, and were provided with additional passenger amenities which are not found in other planes of the same type,” he said.

These include touch-screen televisions, ports for charging mobile phones and USB outlets, in addition to other amenities, he said.

The two new planes “will enable our company to increase the number of its flights and upgrade the services offered to its passengers”, al-Khafajy said.

Iraqi Airways currently offers routes to numerous destinations, he added, and will add new routes to cities such as Frankfurt, Baku and Tunis in about a month.

FLEET CONTINUES TO GROW
“In previous years, we used to rely mostly on leasing aircraft from international aviation companies, but today we have our own fleet, including eight new Airbus planes which went into service recently following strenuous efforts made by the Minister of Transport Hadi al-Amery,” Civil Aviation Authority director Capt. Nasser al-Shebli told Mawtani.

“The number of aircraft we now have is fairly good, but definitely not enough to meet our aspirations, especially as our agreements with the international aviation authorities to open new air routes are constantly increasing. This makes it necessary for us to boost our air fleet all the time,” he said.

Al-Shebli said he hoped that expected new additions to the fleet from Boeing would help restore service to previous levels.

Some are superliners that can fly for more than 16 hours and carry 370 passengers, while others carry 180 passengers and are specifically designed for short and medium range trips, he said.

NEW ROUTES BEING INTRODUCED
“The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority is about to conclude an agreement with its counterpart in Russia to create new air routes between the two countries,” he said.

A number of new routes recently were introduced serving cities such as London, Kiev, Malmö and New Delhi, he added.

Ihsan al-Awadi, a member of parliament’s services committee, welcomed the Transport Ministry’s efforts to modernise the Iraqi fleet.

The introduction of modern aircraft represents “an important turning point in the efforts made by the Transport Ministry’s officials to upgrade Iraq’s air fleet”, he told Mawtani.

“This move will be beneficial to travellers, allowing them to travel on board comfortable and high quality, high specification aircraft, which has great significance in support of air traffic and Iraq’s opening up to the rest of the world,” he said.