Fly Baghdad’s Boeing 737s are preparing to restart service after shutdown.
FlyBaghdad
The airline business is a tough business. It’s even tougher if you are trying to restart an airline in Iraq after being sanctioned by the U.S. government.
That hasn’t stopped Alaulddin Abdalrahman, CEO of Fly Baghdad, from trying. The sanctions were lifted two weeks ago and he now expects to restart flying Baghdad-Istanbul with a Boeing 737 this month.
“I have to be a dreamer,” Abdalrahman said in a telephone interview from Baghdad on Monday. “I have to be a man with a dream. Without a dream, we cannot grow.
“My vision for the airline is to have this airline at the top of the Iraqi airlines,” he said. “We have to be stronger, more disciplined and more sustainable, to compete with others in the region. We believe we have the opportunity to do it.”
Baghdad International Airport serves about eight million passengers annually, with flights to three dozen destinations by about three dozen airlines, according to Wikipedia. It is not served by any U.S. airline or any major European airline, but most of the major Mideast carriers – Emirates, Qatar and Turkish – offer flights to their hubs. State-owned Iraqi Airways also has a major presence, serving about two dozen destinations including Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Istanbul and Tehran, according to the carrier’s website.
Baghdad-Istanbul is a good route to restart, Abdalrahman said, noting “It’s a golden route for us. Iraqis love to go to Turkey, especially to Istanbul” for a host of reasons, including vacations, study, and medical treatment. Looking ahead, Abdalrahman said the carrier will also serve Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan
“We will compete with others in the region,” Abdalrahman said. “We believe we have the opportunity to do it, but first we have to grow responsibly, enable the relationship with our partners and create opportunities and enhance our reputation.”
An advantage, he said, is that for many carriers, Baghdad is a spoke, with flights time to accommodate service banks at their hubs. Fly Baghdad’s departures from Baghdad would be at convenient time, not at 3:30 a.m., he said, noting “The Iraqi passenger is suffering from the timing.”
A disadvantage is that Fly Baghdad currently has just four aircraft – three Boeing 737s and one CRJ 200 –and is still lining up some of the maintenance work. The plan is to start with one 737. “We are doing preparing maintenance for the fleet,” Abdalrahman said. Work is being done in Baghdad and Istanbul. With the removal of sanctions, it will become easier to contract for maintenance work.
Fly Baghdad’s uneven history is part of the challenge.
The carrier started flying in 2015. It suspended operations in 2017, restructured the fleet, then restarted the same year. In 2024 it briefly suspended operations after it was sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control for allegedly supporting Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq, said Eric Blinderman, attorney for the airline. Then-CEO Basheer Abdulkadhim Alwan was also sanctioned because he controlled the airline.
Blinderman said Alwan was removed in 2024 and has had no involvement or affiliation with the airline since then. In addition, Blinderman said, the airline implemented a revised compliance and screening infrastructure around its operations. “Sanctions are designed to compel a positive change in behavior,” he said. “The airline completed those positive changes and earned the relief which OFAC granted.”
Between 2024 and early 2026, the carrier operated, but due to sanctions it could not do business with U.S. entities. Then it suspended flights in February 2026 due to geopolitical instability in the region.
Two weeks ago, on Aug. 5, the sanctions against the airline were lifted. In a press release,
Fly Baghdad said it has “been removed from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the “SDN List”), marking the successful conclusion of a comprehensive two-year compliance transformation.”
Specifically, two Boeing 737s manufactured in 2002 and 2008 were removed from sanctions, while Basheer Abdulkadhim Alwan was listed on the OFAC site as “Linked To: ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS (IRGC)-QODS FORCE).”
Fly Baghdad’s owner is Ahmad Asad, an Iraqi businessman who is chairman of the airline, the carrier said.
According to Aviation Week, data shows Fly Baghdad offered 224,048 two-way seats across 1,207 flights on 35 airport pairs in August 2023, five months before sanctions hit. Its August 2026 schedule totals just 8,602 seats on 46 flights across three routes—a 96.2% reduction in both capacity and frequency, Aviation Week said. Annual capacity fell from 1.92 million seats across 60 airport pairs in 2023 to a single Baghdad-Istanbul route by 2025.
Today, however, “Fly Baghdad is no longer subject to U.S. blocking sanctions, and persons in the United States and worldwide may transact with the airline in the ordinary course of business,” the carrier said in its press release. “The delisting also extends to all aircraft previously identified as blocked property, which are likewise unblocked effective the same date,” it said.
Fly Baghdad said it “welcomes the resumption of normal commercial relationships with banks, payment providers, insurers and reinsurers, aircraft lessors, maintenance providers, fuel suppliers, distribution systems, travel agencies, and all other commercial partners.”
In the release, Abdulrahman said, “This is the result of two years of disciplined work by our people to rebuild trust in how we operate. We did not ask for trust—we set out to earn it through governance, controls, and transparency that meet the highest international standards. Today’s action recognizes that work, and we intend to keep earning it every day.”
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