Iraqi Airways unaffected by ISIS advance

Iraqi Airways continues to operate scheduled flights across the country, despite its government owner ceding control of most northern and western cities to Sunni militants headed by the Al Qaeda offshoot ISIS.
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"We haven't experienced any difficulties because of ISIS. All the aircraft are ok," a UK-based spokesperson for the flag-carrier told Arabian Aerospace. "A lot of the problems are in areas that Iraqi really didn't operate in."

The airline's four-times weekly service from Baghdad to Mosul was suspended in June after ISIS seized control of Mosul Airport, but all other domestic routes are unaffected. Iraqi Airways has secondary operating bases at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in the autonomous northern Kurdish region, and Najaf and Basrah in the south.

Baghdad International Airport remains under the control of security contractor G4S, the spokesperson confirmed, though 470 US troops have also been deployed to strategic locations across the capital.

In March 2013, Iraqi Airways launched flights to London Gatwick Airport from Baghdad (twice weekly) and Sulaymaniyah (once weekly). Frequencies on the Sulaymaniyah route doubled in July, alongside the launch of a once weekly service from Erbil.

Flights between the Kurdish capital and London are growing in popularity among oil workers, with Zagrosjet also planning to begin serving London Luton Airport this summer. Iraqi Airways' new route launched on 11 July and is already "heavily booked up", the spokesperson said.

He added that the security stopover for outbound services to the UK has been streamlined, with flights now routing via Vienna instead of Malmo and passengers no longer required to identify their baggage on the tarmac.

"We don't have to do the [extra] baggage screening in Vienna, and now it's only a one-hour stop," he explained, noting that customers had criticised the earlier measure. "The flight is two hours shorter in total. Our passengers still have to disembark, but they don't have to go to the ground to check the baggage like before."