“And neither myself nor the other passengers really had any other option,” Harram recounts. “We are forced to get onto these old planes, which are actually not allowed to travel outside Iraq because of their condition. Yes,” he joked about the early flight, “this airline is completely committed to a lack of punctuality, delays and damaging the interests of its passengers.”
“There’s no other way to describe the work of this company than chaos,” adds Ayed al-Wasiti, an Iraqi businessman who frequently travels around the country and who holds Swedish nationality. “When the flights are not on time, the only answer you get if you’re delayed for hours, sometimes days, is “God willing, the flight will eventually go”.”
Often passengers are instructed to move into other halls of the airport on foot, before even entering the departure lounge. They’re usually told it is because a machine has broken down here, or for “security reasons”. And when they ask when their flight might be expected to depart, they say, they always get the same answer: “Very soon, God willing”.
So what will happen to Iraqi Airways next? Certainly the good intentions are there. Agreements have been made for the purchase of a new fleet, mostly from US-based aerospace manufacturer Boeing, as well as bilateral cooperation agreements made with regard to the rehabilitation of Iraq’s airports. And those in charge of the company say that they want to “restore the status and reputation of the company, which was one of the biggest and best in the region previously”.
Earlier this year, Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research based in the United Kingdom, told Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper that any such plans must be accompanied by staff recruitment and training.
Meanwhile Nasser Hussein Bandar, the head of Iraq's civil aviation authority told the same newspaper that they did have a plan: "Iraqi Airways has the experience, we have the know-how and with more than 3,600 staff that includes pilots, cabin crew, schedulers, operators and marketers,” he said. Up until now, all that they’ve lacked is the planes, he noted.
One thing is for certain though: for locals travelling on the national airline at the moment, who are experiencing delays, dragging baggage around airports and sitting in aisles, it will take a lot to restore the “green wings” to the prestigious position they once held here.
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