Iraqi aviation primed for take-off
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After a decade of conflict and insecurity, Iraq now offers lucrative growth opportunities across all sectors, including aviation.
During the last few years, aviation has transformed into one of the fastest growing sectors with Iraqi Airways placing orders for new aircrafts, and airports in like Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, Baghdad, Najaf and others announcing billions worth expansion plans.
Iraq Airways recently launched direct flights to Kuwait, the first direct flights between the nations in more than two decades. In addition to other regional destinations, the Iraqi carrier has also opened air routes with countries such as Sweden, Britain, Malaysia, India, and Denmark. New routes are to open in the near future, to various destinations including Azerbaijan and Russia.
To support expanded operations, the flag carrier has signed a US$387m agreement with Bombardier for five CSeries aircraft with an option on another 11 CS300s.
International carriers are also showing interest in the market, with 30 airlines already operating to the Middle East nation. Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airway, Air Arabia, flydubai, Royal Jordanian, Jazeera Airways, and EgyptAir, are all positioning themselves to handle the increasing passenger growth.
Airport development is also underway to help support and drive growth in the aviation sector. Airports in the country have development plans worth US$50 billion for construction of new terminals, air traffic control facilities, safety and security, IT support, maintenance, operations and more.
Iraq is building a new international airport near Karbala, named Middle Euphrates International Airport (MEIA), and another international airport project is under construction at Duhok, in Kurdistan region. Expansion works are also underway at existing facilities at Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, Najaf, Mosul and Sulaymaniyah.
In 2013, the inaugural Iraq Airport Show welcomed industry representatives from around the world to showcase the development opportunities. Events company Babylon International FZE will look to build on this success at the Iraq Airports Show 2014 – Conference and Exhibition will be hosted by Sulaimaniyah International Airport from 24-25 September 2014.
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