=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/05/29/i= nternational1043EDT0535.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, May 29, 2003 (AP) Fly the Baghdad skies: Iraqi Airways plans to resumes operations, managemen= t says SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer (05-29) 13:19 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's national carrier, hard-hit by two wars and 13 years of U.N. sanctions, is preparing to resume service after a three-month hiatus, its management said Thursday. In an announcement to employees, Iraq Airways officials said the once-profitable company was working with the U.S.-led coalition to get flying again. The statement said the U.S.-led Office for Reconstruction and Humanitari= an Assistance was working to complete the technical preparations that would enable flights to resume. "After that Iraqi Airways flights will resume, but this will take some time," said the statement, from manager of flight operations Halid el-Quaisee. On Wednesday, the U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq announced that flight restrictions in place since 1990 had been removed following the Security Council's decision last week to lift sanctions. The state-owned airline has been grounded since the start of the U.S.-led coalition offensive against Iraq in March. Several of its jetliners, maintenance facilities and offices at Baghdad International Airport -- formerly known as Saddam International Airport -- are said to have been damaged or destroyed in the fighting. Other aircraft remain parked at airports in Syria and Jordan. Its head office at the airport was taken over by the U.S. military in April, and the main terminal is still used as a makeshift barracks. American officials haven't said when they will hand over the airport, or those in Basra and Mosul, to civilian aviation authorities. The fortunes of Iraqi Airways declined steadily over the past two decade= s, and it was not clear how soon it will be ready fly again. "Nobody seems to be in charge anymore," said Hassan Dixon, a flight engineer who reported for work at a downtown building that used to house the airlines' staff club. "We have no instructions from management." In the 1970s, the state-owned airline was considered one of the fastest-growing in the Middle East. Its aircraft -- with their distinctive green-and-white paint scheme -- included Boeing 707s, 727s, 747s and Russian-built Il-76 cargo jets. That expansion ended with the start of the Iraq-Iran war in 1980. Just before the 1991 Gulf War, the airline's 15 Boeings were flown to Jordan, Iran and Tunisia. The airline has not been able to retrieve all of them, and Baghdad claimed Iran's national carrier put some of those planes into its own fleet. Iraqi Airways was grounded for several years after the war because of U.= N. sanctions that made procuring spare parts impossible. The company's in-flight catering department sold meals and pastries at Baghdad supermarkets to raise money. The airline resumed limited domestic service in the mid-1990s when spare parts again became available under the oil-for-food program. Flights linked Baghdad with Mosul and Basra, but they were again suspended in March as the latest conflict began. Pilots say the airline has a total of 23 passenger and cargo jets. Eight remain at Baghdad airport, two were badly damaged in the fighting and have been written off, and 15 are currently parked abroad. Airlines in other countries that suffered international isolation have found it difficult to regain market share and re-establish flight networks. In the former Yugoslavia, which spent eight years under U.N. sanctions prior to the 2000 ouster of President Slobodan Milosevic, the national flag carrier Yugoslav Airlines has shed two-thirds of its fleet and laid off most of its workers in a desperate effort to remain afloat. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP