Iraqi Airways (IA, Baghdad) is planning to begin non-stop Baghdad-Washington Dulles flights next year, the airline's Director General Osama Sadr has said.
Speaking to Rudaw news, Sadr said talks had already been held between undisclosed 'administrative' bodies on either side. However, the launch of any routes to the United States is contingent on Iraq securing a Category 1 rating under the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) Program.
Currently, Iraqi Airways serves thirty-five destinations across nineteen countries in the Middle East, Asia, Europe (using wet-leased equpiment from AirExplore (ED, Bratislava)), and North Africa.
Iraqi currently has to use a B737-800 OM-HEX (msn 30785) wet-leased from Air Explore for its European operations to London Gatwick, Stockholm Arlanda, Copenhagen Kastrup, Frankfurt International, Düsseldorf and Berlin Tegel. Its services to Manchester International have been temporarily suspended following the EASA ban of its own operations to the European Union on safety grounds. Iraqi's UK General Manager Saad Al-Khafaji told the Manchester Evening News that the services to Manchester were not commercially viable when using wet-leased aircraft.
