Bmi, Heathrow’s second biggest airline and a member of the Star Alliance which includes Lufthansa and United Airlines, says it is "ready and willing" to start services from London to the Iraqi capital once the two governments give permission. It would be the first time direct commercial flights have operated between the two countries since the first Gulf War of 1991.

The announcement came on the same day British forces formally ended combat operations in Iraq, formally passing authority for military operations over to the United States. Bmi, which already serves several destinations in the Middle East including Tehran, Tel Aviv, Beirut and Damascus, has met senior Iraqi Government officials to discuss the matter and flights could start in Spring 2010.

It believes business and government traffic on the route could prove lucrative as the country returns to normality, although it admitted there was no timescale on government permission for the route. The announcement came at a meeting of over 300 delegates with Iraqi business interests met at a forum in London attended by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malikiand and Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise, to discuss investment in Iraq.

Nigel Turner, chief executive officer of Bmi who also attended the conference said: "It makes both geographical and economic sense for us to add Iraq to our growing network of services to the region. Iraq is surrounded on four sides by countries that we already serve from Heathrow. We are carrying an ever increasing number of passengers who, at the moment, travel from Baghdad to Heathrow via our existing intermediate point of Amman. As trade and business ties grow we envisage that these numbers will grow."

The only current direct link to western Europe is currently provided by another Star Alliance carrier and Bmi partner, Austrian Airlines, which flies to Irbil. Turkish Airlines, also part of the Star Alliance and another Bmi partner, flies to Baghdad from Istanbul.

British Airways suspended flights to Iraq in March 1987 during the Iran-Iraq war. Flights resumed again in November 1988 but were stopped again before the first Gulf war. It also signalled its desire to restart services shortly after the UK-US invasion in 2003, but was thwarted by the subsequent civil unrest that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and hundreds of British soldiers. Several aircraft have been attacked by insurgent missiles while flying to or from Baghdad’s international airport, which is located 10 miles west of the city. In November 2003, a DHL Airbus cargo plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile, forcing it to make an emergency landing.

Mr Turner said: "I have handed a letter to Iraq’s transport minister Amr Abduljabber Ismail and told him that we recognise the considerable efforts that are being made to get business and commerce between our two countries to develop and grow. In order for those efforts to succeed normal transport links have to be in place. The ability to travel by air between Heathrow and Baghdad is vital in supporting the considerable energy that is going into bringing business ties and investment back to normality."

He added: "As the situation returns to normality we are seeing a small number of scheduled services from Baghdad being launched within the region. At the moment we are unable to commence services to Heathrow until the UK Government permits UK aircraft or British registered carriers to fly in and out of Iraq. Nevertheless, I have told Iraqi officials and business that subject to the required levels of operational integrity and safety being satisfactorily achieved and appropriate governmental approval, Bmi is ready and willing to once again re-establish air links between Heathrow and Baghdad." Mr Turner said he hoped to operate a daily service from Heathrow with an intermediate stop at an existing Bmi destination, most likely Amman in neighbouring Jordan.

He said the level of interest in Iraq shown by potential investors at the London meeting was "amazing" and that he was confident an air link would be well supported by business and government traffic as well as by Iraqis travelling to visit friends and relatives. "There are lots of historic links between Iraq and the United Kingdom," he said, adding that Baghdad would fit "extremely well" with the airline’s current range of destinations.

Loss-making Bmi will shortly become 80 per cent owned by German airline Lufthansa after chairman and owner Sir Michael Bishop in October to exercised a put option to sell his stake of 50pc plus one share for several hundred million pounds. It is not clear what long-term plans Lufthansa has for the airline, which operates one in eight flights from Heathrow.

source: www.telegraph.co.uk