Transport announces signing of consulting and executive contract with the International Air Transpor

The Ministry of Transport announced, on Tuesday, that it has taken important practical steps in its efforts to lift the European ban on Iraqi Airways, revealing the signing of a consulting and executive contract with the International Air Transport Association to support this file.

A statement by the ministry, seen by "Al-Eqtisad News", said that "Minister of Transport Razzaq Muhaibis attaches great importance to the file of lifting the European ban on the green bird, and Iraqi Airways continues to work to complete the procedures for lifting the ban and implementing the requirements of the International Air Transport Association (IATA)."

The statement added that "among the important steps achieved in this file is the signing of a consulting and executive contract by the Director General of Iraqi Airways, Manaf Abdul-Moneim, with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), represented by the Vice President of the Association for the Middle East and Africa, Kamel Al-Awadhi, and the terms of the contract will be implemented within a month of its signing, to be followed by the signing of the second phase contract known as (cap), meaning corrective measures, which is the second step in the steps to meet the requirements for lifting the European ban according to specific time limits."

The statement quoted Abdel Moneim as saying, "This step comes in the context of obtaining the international (IOSA) certificate and the third country operator certificate (TCO), and will contribute to raising the level of safety performance in the company and paving the way for its return to membership in the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in addition to the positive returns that this step will achieve on the technical and commercial aspects of the national carrier."

The Director General of Iraqi Airways, Manaf Abdul-Moneim Ajil, stated according to the statement that the reasons for the ban imposed on Iraqi Airways came as a result of observations recorded by the European Safety Agency with observations recorded by the Civil Aviation Authority, which is a joint file between the airlines and the authority.

The statement continued, "The airlines, in parallel with these efforts, are proceeding towards signing a joint contract with one of the solid companies to operate at least two aircraft with the 83bis system, which enables the operation of aircraft registered for commercial purposes by the holder of another air operator certificate."

The statement touched on the project of returning grounded aircraft to service and indicated that the number of aircraft returned to service has increased to (11) aircraft of different models, bringing the number of aircraft operating within the air fleet to (26) aircraft, and work is ongoing to return (4) other aircraft by the end of this year at the latest. This will be followed, according to the statement, by the launch of a new and scheduled plan by the technical department of Iraqi Airways, ensuring the return of all grounded aircraft to service and ending this file completely next year.