The Iraqi Airline that Leaves Early, Late, or Not At All

This was confirmed by local MP, Mohammed al-Khafaji, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Services and Construction Committee, who said that several of the Iraqi Airways planes were not flying due to mechanical problems.

In May 2008, Iraq agreed to buy ten new aircraft from Bombardier Inc, of Canada; the total value of ten plane deal was meant to be worth around US$400-million and involved sales of the company’s CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. However due to an ongoing court case involving Kuwait airlines over reparations owed to them by Iraq after the first Gulf War in 1990, not all of the planes were delivered. Currently six are in operation in the country with delivery of the other four being disputed by an international court.

And Al-Khafaji thinks that two of the Canadian planes in Iraq were defective.

Additionally, in early August, the Services and Construction Committee announced they were investigating allegations of corruption around the purchase of the planes, saying that the deal had been facilitated by an Iraqi with Canadian citizenship, whose son worked for Bombardier Canada, when in fact, the planes were not suitable for the job in Iraq. Whether there is any truth to these allegations remains to be seen. In the past Iraqi Airways has always bought from Boeing in the US.

The same committee had other criticisms for Iraqi Airways. For example, al-Khafaji noted, at one stage three airline passengers were forced to sit in a plane’s aisle because of over booking. “And eyewitnesses tell us that this is not the first time that kind of thing has happened,” he stated.

Clearly the company’s problems don’t end with delays and overbooking. Somewhat surprisingly, planes have also been known to take off earlier than scheduled.

Local journalist Faris Harram was one of the passengers booked to leave on an Iraqi Airways flight to Erbil from the city of Najaf. Somewhat unexpectedly the plane left early, stranding many of its passengers. Harram says Iraqi Airways then offered to transport the passengers to Baghdad where they could catch the firm’s 7pm flight to the same destination.