Normalcy is back in Iraq: Iraq to Purchase Planes Worth Close to $6 Billion
Iraq signed two contracts to purchase planes from Boeing and from its Canadian competitor Bombardier for a total cost of up to $5.9 billion. “The Iraqi government signed a contract with Boeing to buy 40 airplanes of type 737 and 787, with the option to purchase 15 more planes for a total value of around $5.5 billion”, Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the Iraqi government, said in a statement.
The government also signed another contract worth about $400 million with Bombardier to buy 10 planes, he added.
Iraq will start to receive the new planes this year with final delivery expected by the end of 2019. This will strengthen the Iraqi civil aviation capability to address the increasing demand for transportation to and from Iraq, al-Dabbagh noted.
[This purchase is Iraq’s first major aircraft order since at least before its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Most of the country’s fleet was destroyed during the 2003 war.]