IRAQ: Fly Iraq First outlines ambitious launch plans
• Fly Iraq First is the latest Iraqi start-up looking to offer scheduled passenger flights across the Middle East and continental Europe. It is not yet an AOC holder.
• The nascent carrier is on the Iraqi companies register as certificate #24850, dated 29 April 2024. Authorised capital is IQD 10 billion dinars (about USD 7.63 million at IQD 1,310.5/USD, 29 Aug 2026). The extract does not split that sum by investor.
• Shareholders are Mohsen Fahim Al-Farhoud, Nameer Naseeb Abdulrahman Al-Rahmani and Dhurgham Karim Saleh Al-Hakkak. Al-Hakkak is also managing director. Watheb Mahdi Majeel is accountant; Muhannad Miqdad Abdulkareem Al-Karawi is legal adviser.
• The website lists Dubai, Istanbul, London, Paris, and Cairo as targets. Fleet type is unpublished although marketing art shows A320, A330 and 787 renderings.
• Despite these ambitious plans, Iraqi-certified carriers remain on the EU Air Safety List (Iraqi Airways since December 2015; Fly Baghdad from November 2023). After an April 2025 meeting with the ICAA, the Commission called a September 2025 on-site visit premature. An Iraqi AOC does not open Schengen. Any FIF service into the Union would have to be flown by a third-party holder of an EASA TCO; the UK needs a UK CAA TCO.
• Iraqi Airways has used that gap before: Slovakia’s AirExplore ran wet-leased 737-800s under Iraqi Airways' codes to Germany, Copenhagen, and London from December 2020; AtlasGlobal did earlier EU work. An Iraqi Airways European ACMI RFP in February 2025 produced no named winner.
• Aside from Iraqi Airways, the only other Iraqi-certified scheduled passenger carriers include Basra Airlines, a resurgent Fly Baghdad which was recently removed from the US Treasury’s black list, Global Airlines, and UR Airlines. FlyErbil is understood to be dormant.
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