We agreed to pay them US$300 million in cash as compensation ad we also agreed to invest a further US$200 million in a joint venture between Iraqi Airways and Kuwait Airways.
But there are still a lot of outstanding problems, mostly resulting from Iraq’s previous invasion of Kuwait – problems around borders, oil fields, water sources and so on. During this last visit, we agreed on the establishment of a joint committee to discuss all those things and to try and find some solutions.
NIQASH: Are there any plans for Iraqi Airways to buy planes or to open new routes?
Al-Amiri: Iraqi Airways doesn’t have any planes because of the Kuwaiti lawsuit. However Iraqi Airways does have a contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Finance that gives them permission to purchase 45 Boeing planes. We also have an old contract with Airbus and we’re going to renew that if things are resolved with Kuwait.
Despite those outstanding problems, we’ve been able to open Iraq up to many new airlines. Previously there were only a handful of flights from the United Arab Emirates every week, now there are around 50 a week. Flights coming from Turkey are at around 60 a week and Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon are also increasing numbers of flights.
We also want to start flights into Tehran [Iran] and to other Iranian cities to give Iranians visiting the holy shrines in Iraq better access. We also have flights to India and we’re intending on flying to Pakistan and China too.
We’re also trying to open more airports around Iraq. And I believe that if we can come to an agreement with Kuwait, then Iraqi Airlines will expand hugely because Iraq today is such a promising market for air travel.
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