Fly Baghdad to commence Europe and India services in 2018, planning IPO in 2020

Fly Baghdad CEO Ali al-Hamdany said the airline aims to commence Europe and India services in 2018 (Reuters, 29-Nov-2017). The carrier intends to commence Delhi, Frankfurt and Malmö services with leased Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 aircraft. European services will target the Iraqi diaspora. The network expansion would support plans to increase passenger numbers from 300,000 in 2017 to one million in 2018. The carrier intends to expand its fleet to six to eight aircraft by 2020. Mr al-Hamdany commented: "There is a huge population which are cash rich and are not too many places to visit in Iraq. Everyone is talking about travelling". The carrier also aims to achieve profitability in 2018 and list on a stock market in 2020.