IRAQ | Aviation Sector

[BigDreamer]

The Iraq aviation sector will grow in parallel to its economy. This thread should be used to track development in the aviation industry. For example the entry of new airline operators into the Iraqi market, the revival of old air routes and the opening of new new ones, and the revival of our national airlines (Iraqi Airways).

[BigDreamer]

Coyne adds Reliable Unique Services to Iraq

Currently twice-weekly services link the UAE with Baghdad, Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Balad. Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk are available on request.

Larry Coyne CEO of Coyne Airways said, “Extending our working relationship adds increased robustness to our Iraq schedules and enables Coyne to offer complete coverage of Iraq on a single through AWB from all major airports. In addition, we will now be able to provide a return service from Iraq to the UK.”

Coyne, reportedly operating into Iraq since 2004, began working with RUS Aviation in August last year. RUS or "Reliable Unique Services" is also partnered with Iraqi Airways

[BigDreamer]

Iraq seeks early delivery of new Boeing airliners

BAGHDAD, March 18 (Reuters) - Iraq's Transport Ministry is looking to bring forward delivery of new aircraft from Boeing (BA.N) as it presses ahead with expanding the operations of national airline Iraqi Airways, the transport minister said.

Amer Abdul-Jabbar said Iraqi Airways currently owns just four ageing planes and depends mainly on leased aircraft, which are expensive, so the ministry is trying to get the first deliveries this year on an order for a fleet of 55 new Boeing 737s, 777s and 787s which were not due to arrive until 2013.

"I believe 55 new planes are good to meet the needs of Iraqi Airways till 2020, since we are expecting to be more open to the world," Abdul-Jabbar told Reuters in an interview this week.

He said Boeing had been expected to deliver in 2013 but the government is now hoping to receive some this year.

"They promised us to study our demand, taking into account other airline companies (needs), to see if they are ready to give us priority," Abdul-Jabbar said.

A year and a half ago Iraq had only six international routes, to Amman, Damascus, Beirut, Dubai, Tehran and Cairo. Since then it has gradually started to open up to other countries and now has routes to Turkey, Germany, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Pakistan.

Iraq has also signed an agreement to open a route to the UK in the near future, and a memo of understanding for routes into the United States.

Abdul-Jabbar said increasing the fleet means increasing flight crews and the airline now needs 200 new pilots.

The Boeing deal includes $30 million to train Iraqi pilots and the company also donated $7 million to build a pilot training institute in Baghdad, he said.

Iraq originally signed a $5.9 billion contract with Boeing and Canada's Bombardier (BBDb.TO) in 2008 to buy at least 50 aircraft to rebuild a fleet that was almost totally destroyed in the 2003 war.

source : http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSK...pe=marketsNews

[MKTJ]

Lufthansa plans flights to Iraq
Baghdad and Erbil to be new Middle East destinations
East Meadow, NY, Jan. 12, 2010 - As Iraq’s civil aviation continues to open up, demand
for flights to the country is growing. Lufthansa is therefore examining the possibility of
launching several new services to Iraq and is currently planning to serve the capital,
Baghdad, and the city of Erbil in Northern Iraq from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.
Lufthansa aims to launch the new services in the summer of 2010, once it has obtained
the necessary traffic rights. Further infrastructure requirements are also being examined.
With the resumption of flights to Iraq, Lufthansa is pursuing its policy of expanding its
route network in the Middle East, which it presently serves with 88 flights per week to
14 destinations in eleven countries.
Lufthansa operated flights to Baghdad from 1956 until the start of the Gulf War in 1990.
Erbil is already being served from Vienna by Austrian Airlines, which is part of the
Lufthansa Group. From next summer, Baghdad and Erbil will be linked to Lufthansa’s
hubs in Frankfurt and Munich and will thus be integrated into Lufthansa’s global route
network.
The fares and exact flight times with connections from and to the U.S., will be announced
at a later date as soon as booking for the new routes opens.

http://www.lufthansa.com/mediapool/p...dia_767964.pdf

[BigDreamer]

great news

[sheytanElKebir]

I've used baghdad and najaf airports. Najaf being far nicer and easier to access. I also noted that 4 new canadair CRJ900s have been delivered and are sitting on the apron in Baghdad airport. They are unpainted, except for the first one which had a blue iraqi airways livery (rather than the usual green).

Iraqi airways also has 30+10 orders for B737-800s and 10+5 for B787 Dreamliners in addition to completing the deliveries on the 10+10 CRJ900 local jets.

Baghdad airport has a few weeks ago reopened a second terminal, which is now the "hub" for iraqi airways services. all other airlines using the first terminal (I don't know what they're called, baghdad - ninewa - babil??). anyway, 2 of the 3 passenger terminals are open now. and in the terminal I was flying from, there were about 15 scheduled flights for the morning-afternoon. not too shabby.

[BigDreamer]

that's really wonderful to hear

If possible, can you take some pics for us of terminal 2?
what does it look like from the inside? is it like the terminal 1 rehabilitation?

[sheytanElKebir]

I have not gone inside the newly reopened terminal. all three are exactly the same. therefore "upgrade" I guess would consist of the new Plasma screens for the flight info, a duty free shop and a restaurant... maybe they did some other work on the iraqi airways terminal but I really don't know.

[sheytanElKebir]

The Iraqi government has announced that a local airport will be built in Salahuddin province. The stated cost of the project is $140M USD and will most probably use one of the many surplus airbases as a foundation (runways/taxiways/hangars/roads/car parks) for the terminal building and civilian infrastructure.

Whether there is truly a need for such an airport is another question.

[sheytanElKebir]

Design of the new airport in Karbala to serve the three "central Euphrates" provinces has been awarded to ADP-I (Aeroport De Paris). ADP-I submitted a bid for 50M euros, which the Iraqis, in their usual competence, read as $50M USD, was eventually settled for $50M when ADP-I gave up on reason and logic, and simply went along with the Iraqis stubborn ineptitude and agreed to do the work for about 30% less!

The airport will have an initial capacity of 6M passengers per annum, and will eventually be expanded to 12M passengers per annum (but that is just an inshalla, I'd sell my kidney to see the first stage built).

It is also supposed to have a cargo terminal, a hotel and an airport free zone (they're all emulating Dubai now). Lets just wait and see if the authorities can string a grammatically correct letter in English together, to try and entice mugs (investors) to part with their cash in Iraq and be at the mercy of the whims of the Iraqi authorities who repossess assets without undue decorum.

[sheytanElKebir]

Iraq has gone all mad about building airports at the moment. I really don't understand why, but within 5 years Iraq will have the following airports:

-Basra international airport - open
-Nassiriya international airport (UNDER CONSTRUCTION) - based at the imam ali AB, Shared with the Iraqi air force. the ATC etc have already been built.
-Missan international Airport, - Under construction - based on the disused Qalat Salih airbase
-Najaf Al Ashraf international airport - open
-Central Euphrates International Airport - Design stage and foundation stone set.
-Baghdad International Airport - Open
-Salahuddin Airport - approved, based on a disused air base
-Mosul Airport - open
Erbil Airport - Open
Sulaymania airport - Open

That's 10 international airports. one for every 3M citizens. really really over the top (especially considering Iraq's catastrophic infrastructure and facilities).

Flying out of these will be an eventual "national airline" with the following fleet:
20 CRJ900 local jets
40 B737-800 for regional flights
15 B787 dreamliners for long haul flights

plus an assortment of local private airlines and international airlines.

[BigDreamer]

I know, there is a long running joke now in the Iraqi community about how they're transforming the country into giant amalgamation of airports.

I also do question some of these decisions. perhaps najaf and karbala can sustain the operation of their airports due to an increasing flow of pilgrims/ religious tourism. but the rest do seem strange. oh btw, you also left Kirkuk airport (I've heard that they want to revive it as well lol)

[sheytanElKebir]

As far as I know no (civilian) airport in kirkuk. though kirkuk AB is served by DHL for cargo.

one of the reasons for these airports is because saddam's legacy left a HUGE number of military airbases in iraq that there is simply no use for anymore. The iraqi air force will use only 4 airbases in the future (in saddam's time there were over 50). so what to do with all the spare airbases? (the americans will also likely "rent" another 5 airbases) but that still leaves an awful lot of runways, hangars, fuel cells etc that can be "recycled" by adding a terminal building and civil ATC...

[BigDreamer]

well It will be good for the country if they can keep domestic flights cheap, domestic tourism can flourish, which is always good news.

I can't imagine Nasseriya and Missan getting regular international flights at the present time :S

but I can see the Salahuddin being viable if they copy the Najaf model.

[sheytanElKebir]

nasseriya is getting regular DHL flights at the moment. It will serve 2 provinces (muthanna/nassiriya) with about 2M population inside and over 500k "expats" from those provinces.

Misan OTOH is a little weak? since its isolated and small and with a small expat population. but it has the OIL wells... and the big oil companies will bring 10s of thousands of their workers to Misan for many decades to come... so things might pick up.

[BigDreamer]

U.S.'s Leedco wins Iraq airport contract

Unlisted Leedco Engineers Inc has won a $50 million contract for construction of an international airport in Iraq, company and provincial officials said on Monday.

The airport is to be built in Salahuddine Province in northern Iraq as an alternative to Baghdad International Airport, said Jewher Hamad al-Fahel, the head of the province's investment commission.

Land is to be handed over to the California-based engineering consulting services company in the next few days, he told Reuters.

Hassan Badrelddine, Leedco's representative in Iraq, said the contract was worth $50 million.

The goal is to have the new airport operational within two years, with initial capacity of 2 million passengers a year. Baghdad International Airport handles about 7 million passengers a year.

Iraq's Transport Ministry said this month it would invite foreign companies in April to build an international airport in southern Iraq. French airport operator Aeroports de Paris (ADP.PA) won a $42.5 million contract in November 2009 to work on the plans

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSK...pe=marketsNews

[BigDreamer]

we can start a new thread for this once it's U/C or when we get some renders

[ardamir]

$50 million seems really cheap for an airport of that size.

[sheytanElKebir]

Originally Posted by ardamir

$50 million seems really cheap for an airport of that size.

which airport?

Karbala airport's DESIGN contract is $50M. its construction will be in the $2BN range.

Salahuddin airport is a small regional airport (kind of like mosul / najaf / nassiriya), and it already has an ATC / radar / runway / lights / taxiways / hangars. All they are building is a terminal for arrivals / departures and some shops

[asif iqbal]

I just hope iraqs oil wealth can one day benifit its people, they need it and they only deserve it, its been abused for so long

like in Africa, Iraq should not give contracts to big Western corporate companys otherwise they will get nowhere, they should give contracts to China