Iraqi Airways plans to resume operations, management says BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) =97 Iraq's national carrier, hard-hit by two wars and 13= =20 years of U.N. sanctions, is preparing to resume service after a three-month= =20 hiatus, its management said Thursday. In an announcement to employees, Iraq= =20 Airways officials said the once-profitable company was working with the=20 U.S.-led coalition to get flying again. The statement said the U.S.-led=20 Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance was working to=20 complete the technical preparations that would enable flights to resume.=20 "After that Iraqi Airways flights will resume, but this will take some=20 time," said the statement, from manager of flight operations Halid=20 el-Quaisee. On Wednesday, the U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against=20 Iraq announced that flight restrictions in place since 1990 had been=20 removed following the Security Council's decision last week to lift=20 sanctions. The state-owned airline has been grounded since the start of the= =20 U.S.-led coalition offensive against Iraq in March. Several of its jetliners, maintenance facilities and offices at Baghdad=20 International Airport =97 formerly known as Saddam International Airport =97= =20 are said to have been damaged or destroyed in the fighting. Other aircraft= =20 remain parked at airports in Syria and Jordan. Its head office at the=20 airport was taken over by the U.S. military in April, and the main terminal= =20 is still used as a makeshift barracks. American officials haven't said when= =20 they will hand over the airport, or those in Basra and Mosul, to civilian=20 aviation authorities. The fortunes of Iraqi Airways declined steadily over= =20 the past two decades, and it was not clear how soon it will be ready fly=20 again. "Nobody seems to be in charge anymore," said Hassan Dixon, a flight= =20 engineer who reported for work at a downtown building that used to house=20 the airlines' staff club. "We have no instructions from management." In the 1970s, the state-owned airline was considered one of the=20 fastest-growing in the Middle East. Its aircraft =97 with their distinctive= =20 green-and-white paint scheme =97 included Boeing 707s, 727s, 747s and=20 Russian-built Il-76 cargo jets. That expansion ended with the start of the Iraq-Iran war in 1980. Just=20 before the 1991 Gulf War, the airline's 15 Boeings were flown to Jordan,=20 Iran and Tunisia. The airline has not been able to retrieve all of them,=20 and Baghdad claimed Iran's national carrier put some of those planes into=20 its own fleet. Iraqi Airways was grounded for several years after the war=20 because of U.N. sanctions that made procuring spare parts impossible. The=20 company's in-flight catering department sold meals and pastries at Baghdad= =20 supermarkets to raise money. The airline resumed limited domestic service=20 in the mid-1990s when spare parts again became available under the=20 oil-for-food program. Flights linked Baghdad with Mosul and Basra, but they= =20 were again suspended in March as the latest conflict began. Airlines in=20 other countries that suffered international isolation have found it=20 difficult to regain market share and re-establish flight networks. In the=20 former Yugoslavia, which spent eight years under U.N. sanctions prior to=20 the 2000 ouster of President Slobodan Milosevic, the national flag carrier= =20 Yugoslav Airlines has shed two-thirds of its fleet and laid off most of its= =20 workers in a desperate effort to remain afloat. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************