Dana Mohammed Saeed, media director at the airport, said, “After flights between Iraq and Europe were suspended for 23 years, on March 8, 2013, the first flight from London, an Iraqi Airways flight, landed at Sulaymaniyah International Airport.”
Iraqi Airways had suspended its flights to a large number of European countries, after Kuwait filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for damage to its aircraft during the Iraqi invasion of 1990. Kuwait had requested $1.2 billion be paid to Kuwait Airways.
In early 2013, Iraq succeeded in settling this judicial dispute, paying Kuwait Airways $500 million.
The first flight via Iraqi Airways landed in Kuwait on Feb. 27, 2013, in a step in the application of the agreement between the two countries.
The director general of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Nasser al-Bader, said that commercial air transport in Iraq was operating using leased aircrafts due to the lawsuit filed by Kuwait against Iraq. He added, “Iraq's inability to purchase modern aircraft has led to a deterioration in commercial air activity.”
“Post-2003, Iraq underwent security hardships that prevented us from renting new planes; companies feared taking such risks in Iraq,” he added.
He then continued, “We waited until the Kuwaiti issue was resolved and the legal dispute was settled. Afterward, we were able to buy new planes. We purchased new Airbus planes because we could not get Boeings.”
“The purchase deal was concluded with German and Norwegian companies that were hurt by the international financial crisis. At present, six new planes have been delivered and we are still waiting for another Airbus and a 2002 updated jumbo jet that was purchased from a Malaysian company,” he added.
Bader affirms that “the total number of planes currently owned by Iraq is as follows: five Airbuses, one Boeing and five other planes that were previously owned by the Pilgrimage Commission.
“We also have six CRJ planes owned by the Ministry of Finance, whose ownership will be transferred to Iraqi Airlines. In total, there will be 17 planes. Additionally, in the middle of this year, two more planes will be delivered. Moreover, we have rented two planes from a Turkish company. The Iraqi fleet will contain, for the first time since the establishment of Iraqi Airlines, 21 planes,” he added.
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