Interview: Basheer Al-Shabbani, Fly Baghdad CEO

Full article in PDF format: page 17-18 & cover

Back in 2013, Saad Al-Khafaji, the then director general of Iraqi Airways, beamed from cheek to cheek while talking to Arabian Aerospace about the coming “tsunami” in Baghdad.

Unfortunately, the surge in tourism and business traffic predicted by Al-Khafaji never materialised – replaced, instead, by a brutal Daesh insurgency that would paralyse Iraq and the Middle East for years. The devastating fallout of that conflict continues to this day. But, with security now largely restored, hopes are rising once again that Baghdad will rehabilitate its image on the world stage.

And, while the flag-carrier has succeeded in doubling its fleet and rebuilding much of its pre-war network, it’s the private sector that’s arguably taken the biggest strides forward for civil aviation...

Interview: Jahed Azimi, Kam Air CEO

Full article in PDF format

On 26th August 2021, as US forces scrambled to escape from Kabul amid a sweeping return to power for the Taliban, Hamid Karzai International Airport became the scene of one of Afghanistan’s worst atrocities in recent memory.

At least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US military personnel were killed in a Daesh-orchestrated suicide bombing of the international gateway.

Despite widespread fears of a return to civil war, it took the newly reinstated Taliban authorities just one month to declare their (now renamed) airport “fully operational” and open again for business. The hope was that former partners like Emirates Airline, Flydubai, Turkish Airlines, Air India and Pakistan International Airlines would flock back to the country.

Two years on, however, only Flydubai has accepted the invitation...