Iraqi airliner welcomed at Gatwick

An Iraqi airline touched down at Gatwick this week for the first time in 20 years the Boeing 737-400 would have arrived a week earlier had it not been for the volcanic ash cloud. A scheduled flight from Baghdad to London has not taken place since 1990.

Iraqi Airways who carried out the historic flight gained the rights to revive the service that had been ended due to military events and UN sanctions, although the flight did make a short security stop there are plans to make it a direct flight that will run twice weekly on a Sunday and Wednesday.

The director of civil aviation in Iraq said although he was happy about the proposed new service and success of the initial flight, but had Western Europe been more cooperative the flights would have taken place much sooner.