New Iraqi national airline gathers speed
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K. Raveendran The Daily Star 24 December,2003
Iraq will have a new national airline by as early as the beginning of next year, a top official of Baghdad’s Coalition Provisional Authority disclosed.
A plan for the start of the new airline has been drawn up by US-based international air transport consultancy SH&C and is ready for implementation, Frank Willis, who is responsible for all civil aviation matters in Iraq under the CPA, said.
Formerly the deputy assistant secretary of transportation and telecommunications at the US State Department and the deputy assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the Transportation Department, Willis now advises the Iraqi Transportation Ministry. He was also a member of the US Middle East Peace Talks team.
Willis was in Dubai to attend the Middle East Aviation Finance Conference, held as part of the 2003 Dubai Air Show last week. Currently, Royal Jordanian’s Amman-Baghdad charter services constitute the only commercial air services operating to the Iraqi capital. There is also a skeletal cargo service operating to Kirkuk.
Earlier this month, the Kurdish Development Corporation announced the creation of a new airline company called United Iraqi Airlines, which operated its first flight between Abu Dhabi and Irbil with the help of a leased ageing Boeing 727. The landing of the plane at the Irbil International Airport marked the first time a commercial plane touched down in the Kurdish area, which under the Kurdistan regional government has seen the development of an economy worth about $3 billion.
The new Iraqi national airline is, however, unlikely to have anything to do with the Kurdish United Iraqi Airlines; nor will it be a resurrection of the former regime’s Iraqi Airways, the assets of which are embroiled in legal disputes relating to the compensation that Saddam Hussein’s ousted government owed to various claimants.
Iraqi Airways route network covered a wide range of destinations throughout Europe and Asia in the 1980s. But the airline has effectively been grounded since the 1991 Gulf War, with several aircraft having been flown out to Jordan, Iran and Tunis where creditors took custody of the assets. Under the post-war sanctions, all international flights to the country were stopped while the enforcement of the no-fly zone by the US and coalition forces curtailed the internal flights.
In the late 1990s, a limited service resumed between Baghdad and Basra and a couple of other locations, but much of the remaining fleet of Iraq’s aircraft was destroyed in the US-led coalition attack on Iraq earlier this year.
The US consultancy firm, which examined the civil aviation dynamics in Iraq, has assumed the involvement of a regional carrier as well as code-sharing arrangements with an international airline in the development of the new Iraqi airline. While not exactly comparable to a global alliance, the new Iraqi airline, however, might be part of a regional group of carriers that could include Royal Jordanian, Middle East Airlines and Syrian Air. A possible name for an international airline could be Delta.
According to Graham Henderson, director of the Washington office of SH&C, one of the major issues now confronting the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority is the multiple designations in the sector. That the relationship of CPA with the Civil Aviation Authority is still evolving adds to the uncertainty. Once the transfer of extensive authority at a faster pace to Iraqi government institutions takes place, there would be greater clarity and the process of evolution would become smoother, he said.
Henderson, who has extensive experience in the Gulf and Middle East, with assignments in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon as well as general management positions with Continental Airlines, British Airways and Dan-Air, was also in Dubai along with Frank Willis to present Iraq’s aviation case to leading financiers and other players at the Middle East Aviation Finance Conference.
The Henderson-Willis presentation made out a strong case for investment in Iraq’s civil aviation as an attractive proposition. With up to 4 million expatriate Iraqis, many hundreds of thousands in Northern Europe, the US and Canada, they forecast strong traffic growth to meet the large pent-up demand. There is also a huge demand on the domestic and regional sector.
SH&E assumes that it would take up to five years for a new national Iraqi airline to build up to where it would have been in 2003 if it did not face any disruptions. The new airline would probably start with an initial fleet of four aircraft, which will evolve over time with route development. The initial essential service could cover Amman and Kuwait across the border and Baghdad, Mosul, Irbil, Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra on the domestic sector. Other possible regional destinations could include Bahrain, Qatar and perhaps Dubai.
The plan envisages high-frequency domestic operations with regional jets, narrow-body planes offering premium-class regional operations and long-range aircraft that can fly long distances, such as to New York and the Far East.
The early international services could involve a relationship with a regional carrier as also code-share and joint service with a US carrier. The probable first overseas destinations include London-Frankfurt in Western Europe and Detroit in the US. The first Detroit flight might well be as early as in April, 2004, the firm assumes.
The launch fleet of four aircraft is likely to have two medium-range aircraft and one short-range and one wide-body, with the possible addition of two medium-range planes in the second year, one short-range and one wide-body in the third year, and two more medium-range each in the fourth and fifth year, making a total fleet size of 12 aircraft by 2008.
SH&E feels that that the new carrier would probably standardize with a single manufacturer, while a mixed fleet could also be desirable. Those who can meet the identified needs of Iraq’s new airlines include Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, Canadair RJ and Embraer RJ.
The Iraqi civil aviation sector also promises opportunities for airport operating companies, ground handling joint ventures, maintenance, repair and overhaul companies as well as international flight academies and training centers. The finances for the new airline are expected to come from multinational developmental agencies.
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Baghdad Office / Agents
Mr. Walid Abdul-Amir Alwan
Bab Al-Mudham
P.O. Box 489, Baghdad - Iraq
Mobile: +964 790 183 1726,
E-mail: itmbaghdad@tcph.org
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