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IraQI AIRWAYS

Cold shouldered
by Europe
In more bad news for the beseiged country, Iraqi Airways
is now seen as a liability in foreign capitals
by Martin Rivers
thegulf@tradearabia.net

ustomers of Iraqi Airways

were left stranded across
Europe in August after the
European Aviation Safety
Agency (EASA) rejected its
request for a new operating permit on
safety grounds. Despite being notified
of the decision on 16 July, the flagcarrier did not inform its passengers
and instead waited for national regulators to revoke their licences one-by-one
over the following weeks.
With all pre-existing permits now
nullified, Iraqi Airways is banned from
deploying its own aircraft to the 28
member states of the European Union
(EU) plus Iceland, Liechtenstein,
Norway and Switzerland. It is allowed
to sub-contract other approved airlines
to maintain the affected routes.
The flag-carriers European network
had consisted of eight stations prior to
the ban: London and Manchester in the
UK; Berlin, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt
in Germany; Malmo and Stockholm in
Sweden; and Copenhagen in Denmark.
Its European footprint had been
growing steadily since 2009, when
flights to the continent resumed after
a 19-year absence caused by Saddam
Husseins invasion of Kuwait and the
international sanctions it provoked.
As well as being forced to undergo

a lengthy recertification process with

EASA, the flag-carrier now faces heightened scrutiny in Brussels that raises the
spectre of inclusion on the European
Commissions (EC) blacklist - a directory of mostly African carriers that are
either permanently banned or heavily
restricted in European skies.
Iraqi Airways management in
Baghdad have yet to comment publicly
on the situation, leaving it up to their
European sales agents to liaise with
customers about replacement services.
Iraqs ministry of transportation issued
a brief statement on 10 August defending its flag-carriers track-record and
reassuring travellers that the ban would
be a temporary suspension.
However, a leaked copy of the letter
sent from EASA executive director
Patrick Ky to Osama al Sadir, the airlines
chief executive, makes clear that a
resumption of flights is by no means
assured. EASA has received credible
and specific safety reports containing
examples of alleged failures to comply
with applicable international safety
standards by Iraqi Airways and the
Iraqi CAA (Civil Aviation Authority),
Ky states in his letter, dated 16 July.
The companys safety protocols
had come up for review following its
application for Third Country Operator
(TCO) authorisation - a new regulatory
permit being introduced by EASA to
replace pre-existing licences issued by

An Iraqi Airways jet on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport. Now the carriers planes are banned from the EU

Iraqi Airways failure to

provide its operational
manuals, which outline
company-specific
procedures and
guidelines that have
been approved by the
airline and its national
regulator, appears
deeply troubling
individual EU member states.
The TCO system is being rolled out
gradually in order to streamline and

simplify the process by which foreign

airlines gain regulatory approval to
serve European airports. Whereas
previously
non-European
airlines
had to request safety permits from
each European country in their route
network, EASAs new TCO protocol
provides a single point of authorisation
for operations across the continent.
Now all you need to do is go to
EASA, and with EASAs permission you
can operate from a safety perspective
in any EU member state, a spokesperson for the regulator tells The Gulf,
adding that the permit also covers the
four European Free Trade Association
(EFTA) states. So, basically, you dont
need to do it 32 times.
TCO authorisation will become
mandatory for all non-European
airlines in November 2016, ending a

30-month transition period from the

old regulatory system. To date, more
than 700 foreign carriers have applied
for the permit. For some airlines its
a quick process, the spokesperson
says. For others, based on [perceived]
risk, the assessment is more in-depth.
Iraqi Airways, inevitably, was among
the carriers facing a higher degree of
scrutiny, owing to the terrorist threat
emanating from its home nation.
Kys letter provides a detailed
breakdown of the timeline for the
failed TCO request. The application
was received by EASA on 20 August
2014, he wrote, prompting initial-stage
assessments that culminated in EASAs
proposal for a technical consultation
meeting in Cologne this summer.
As a pre-requisite for preparation of
such meeting, EASA requested essential

EASA has
received
credible
and specific
safety reports
containing examples
of alleged failures to
comply with applicable
international safety
standards by Iraqi Airways
and the Iraqi CAA
Patrick Ky, EASA in a leaked letter
to Iraqi Airways chief executive
Osama al Sadir on 16 July

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the gulf | September 2015

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operational manuals and documentation, the executive director continued,

noting an initial deadline of 17 June
2015. Iraqi Airways failed to submit its
documents on-time, resulting in a last
and final extension of the deadline
to 13 July. One week before the new
cut-off date, the airline admitted that it
was unable to comply. Its request for
a further three-month extension was
rejected.
EASA has not received any of the
requested documentation to date, Ky
wrote. Your failure to provide EASA
with all requested information
renders the Agency unable to assess your
compliance with applicable requirements [laid down by the International
Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO,
the UNs aviation body, which EASA
uses as a benchmark for safety assessments].
Though the reasoning superficially
seems bureaucratic, Ky noted that
credible and specific reports of safety
violations by Iraqi Airways have come
to light since the airlines TCO application was submitted.
No details about the source or nature
of those alleged violations are disclosed
in the letter, but EASA is leaving no
doubt about how seriously its takes the
apparent red flags. We dont want to
get into the details [in the media], its
spokesperson says. But its not just a
case of not having a single document,
or of missing a deadline, or something
like that.
Even setting aside the wider
undisclosed allegations, Iraqi Airways
failure to provide its operational
manuals appears deeply troubling.
Flight crews typically utilise two sets of
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Photo: Khalid Mohammed/AP

Unable to deploy its

own aircraft to Europe,
Iraqi Airways is now
ferrying passengers to
and from the continent
under so-called wetlease agreements with
outside contractors

With the EU ban, the airlines network reach is significantly confined

manuals: Aircraft Flight Manuals, which

are specific to an aircraft type and are
issued by manufacturers such as Boeing
and Airbus; and Operations Manuals,
which are in-house documents issued
by airlines to their staff.
The latter documentation outlines
company-specific
procedures
and
guidelines that have been approved by
the airline and its national regulator.
Without access to these papers, EASA
has no way of knowing whether Iraqi
Airways and the Iraqi CAA are complying with internationally-recognised
safety standards. Indeed, ICAOs own
guidelines about Operations Manuals
explicitly affirm their importance in
the certification process and in day-today operations.
Once EASA had formally rejected

the TCO application, the EU member

states that had previously approved
Iraqs flag-carrier had little choice but
to revoke their permits. The first such
announcement came from Sweden on
5 August.
Simon Posluk, a departmental head
at the Swedish Transport Agency,
expressed sympathy for affected passengers but insisted that the airline does
not meet safety requirements to fly to
and from EU countries. The Danish,
German and UK authorities followed
suit without issuing public statements.
(Although a leaked letter from
Denmarks Transport and Construction
Agency bemoans the airlines substantial disregard for safety provisions.)
Unable to deploy its own aircraft to
Europe, Iraqi Airways is now ferrying
September 2015 | the gulf

That Brussels will now

be picking over Iraqs air
safety processes with
a fine-tooth-comb is a
foregone conclusion
passengers to and from the continent
under so-called wet-lease agreements
with outside contractors. The first such
deal was announced on 13 August
by Dubai-based Aerovista, which is
providing an Airbus A320 with its own
flight crew to operate the UK routes.
The flag-carrier also appears to be
booking passengers onto connectthe gulf | September 2015

ing flights operated by rival airlines.

According to postings on the Facebook
page of its Danish sales agent, Iraqi
Airways reserved seats for its customers on services flown by Turkeys
AtlasGlobal between Istanbul and
Copenhagen on at least two dates in
August. The flag-carrier maintains
scheduled operations to Istanbul from
five points in Iraq (Baghdad, Basra,
Erbil, Najaf and Sulaymaniyah).
With EASA estimating that TCO
recertification could take several
months, Iraqi Airways will likely need
to sign more wet-lease agreements in
the remainder of 2015. The contracts,
officially known as ACMI (Aircraft,
Crew, Maintenance and Insurance)
agreements, should allow the airline

to preserve a regular timetable on

its European operations - albeit with
another companys aircraft.
However, officials in Iraq will
be reluctant to lean too heavily on
ACMI partners. In 2012, following the
Arab Spring uprisings, Libya agreed
to its own voluntary ban from EU
airspace. Flag-carriers Libyan Airlines
and Afriqiyah Airways signed wet-lease
agreements as a stopgap solution while
talks with Brussels continued. But as
security in the country deteriorated,
so too did the prospect of restoring
operations. In December 2014, after
fighting destroyed Tripolis main
airport, Libyas airlines were formally
added to the EU blacklist.
EASAs spokesperson cautions against
linking the recent TCO suspension
with a more permanent ban. The
blacklist is not actually maintained by
us. It is maintained by the European
Commission, he notes, adding that
the ECs Air Safety Committee conducts
twice-yearly reviews. We dont know
what will happen with the air safety
list.
Nonetheless, that Brussels will
now be picking over Iraqs air safety
processes with a fine-tooth-comb is a
foregone conclusion. Failure to supply
the missing documents and to rebut
the undisclosed allegations of safety
violations will almost certainly result
in restrictions being placed on the
flag-carrier during the next update of
the blacklist in December.
When Iraqi Airways resumed flying
to London in 2013, its then director
general Saad al Khafaji talked up
his airlines role in rehabilitating the
war-torn country. Iraqi Airways is
building bridges between the world and
Iraq, he told The Gulf with a smile. As
promised, the years that followed saw
several European route launches and
impressive 50 per cent growth of the
fleet. But Al-Khafajis success was not
mirrored at home.
The so-called Islamic State has accelerated an already rising tide of violence
in Iraq, pushing civilian fatalities to
more than 17,000 last year - nearly
quadruple the figure recorded in 2012.
As its home nation teeters on the brink,
Iraqi Airways is increasingly being seen
as a liability in foreign capitals. <
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