BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq announced Tuesday it will buy 40 new aircraft from US manufacturer Boeing plus another six from Canadian firm Bombadier to revitalise an ailing fleet depleted by UN sanctions.
It has also agreed to buy four used aircraft from Boeing and has the right to buy another 10 new aircraft from the Seattle-based company, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement without giving further details.
Government newspaper Al-Sabah said in a report on its website the deal with Boeing, valued at six billion dollars, is aimed at facilitating an increase of traffic to and from Iraq.
Delivery of the aircraft would take place in 2013 and 2014, it said.
"We will soon open a number of new routes from Baghdad to Arab countries and other world capitals," the newspaper quoted deputy transport minister Bankine Rikani as saying.
"We will reopen routes from Baghdad to London, Frankfurt, Karachi and Manama," he added.
"The reopening of these routes will be possible due to agreements in principle between the Iraqi transport ministry and a number of airline companies which will enable us to seek the necessary authorisation," he said.
Iraqi Airways, one of the oldest airlines of the Middle East, currently owns just two aircraft and leases a limited number of others.
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 sparked UN economic sanctions which grounded the airline.
It moved its 17 jets to secret locations, mainly in Jordan where six defunct planes can be seen dumped at the far end of Amman's Queen Alia Airport.
Others have been grounded in Tunisia and in Iran.
The national carrier resumed international flying in September 2004 with a Baghdad-Amman service after a flightless 14 years and now operates also to Cairo, Damascus, Beirut and Dubai.
It also operates three domestic routes from Baghdad, to Arbil and to Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous northern Kurdish region, and to Basra in the south.
An Iraqi Airways plane with then prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari on board made a symbolic first flight to London in June 2005.
The flight at the time was touted as the "longest flight since 1990".
In October 2005, an Iraqi Airways plane made its first regular flight from Baghdad to Beirut with then transport minister Salem al-Maliki.
On the eve of the invasion of Kuwait, the company paid European giant Airbus 10 million dollars for four planes, shipments that never arrived when sanctions stalled the deal.
The ailing fleet of grounded planes includes Boeing 727s and 707s.
Jordan regards the planes grounded in Amman as part of millions of dollars of Iraqi assets frozen in the kingdom.
Despite the UN travel ban, ousted dictator Saddam Hussein repeatedly defied the sanctions and allowed pilgrims to fly to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on their way to the holy city of Mecca.
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