Iraqi Airways

Iraqi Airways was established in 1945 as Iraqi State Airlines and began scheduled services. The airline grew through the 1950s and 1960s under Iraq's increasingly wealthy Ba'athist government, acquiring jet aircraft and building an international network. The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) severely disrupted operations. The most catastrophic blow came with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and the subsequent Gulf War — the UN imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq that banned virtually all commercial aviation, stranding Iraqi Airways entirely for over a decade.

During the sanctions period (1990-2003), Iraqi Airways was confined to limited domestic operations within a country under air embargo. The 2003 US-led invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein's government created enormous chaos, with Baghdad Airport temporarily closed and the airline's future uncertain. Gradual reconstruction of Iraqi civil aviation began in 2004-2005 as international sanctions were lifted and foreign airlines returned to Baghdad. Iraqi Airways has been slowly rebuilding its international network and fleet ever since, though security concerns continue to affect operations.