Prime minister hints at creating possible alternative to Iraqi Airways

Iraq’s government has openly floated the idea of establishing an associate carrier to Iraqi Airways as it continues efforts to improve operations and lift long-running restrictions imposed by European regulators. Prime minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani chaired a high-level meeting on 26 February to review the work of the carrier. According to the prime minister’s office, attendees of the meeting discussed the idea of “establishing an auxiliary airline company” based on studying business models from specialist aviation consultants. Iraqi Airways was blacklisted by the EC towards the end of 2015 and, despite several rounds of talks, the restrictions have remained in place, forcing the airline to resort to wet-leasing to serve European destinations. At the end of last year the Commission stated that it planned to carry out an on-site assessment of airline oversight by the Iraqi civil aviation authority – focusing on both the regulator and “selected air carriers” after adding Fly Baghdad to its blacklist.<br/>