By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

We’ve got a story running tonight about Iraqi Airways, a company investing more than $5 billion in new aircraft from Boeing. Not a bad boost for America’s economy.

This was the perfect assignment for me: a self-confessed airport & plane geek (is it any wonder I’m single?) I figure if you spend a lot of time on planes and in departure lounges, you might as well enjoy it, because life would be very depressing otherwise. Iraqi Airways has been known for years by travelers in the Middle East as “Insha’allah (God Willing) Airlines.”

To say they’ve had a bad reputation is an understatement. Poor service and unreliable scheduling are their hallmarks. Over the years they’ve been hit by UN sanctions, a military no-fly zone and legal disputes that left jets rusting on tarmacs in at least three regional airports. Now, the tail-winds of change are blowing through Iraqi Airways with their $5 billion purchase (which includes ten of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft).

They’re making a tidy profit, flying routes around Iraq and across the Middle East. And they have big plans to expand too – with new routes scheduled for India, Europe and hopefully the USA. It might seem like an odd time for an airline to grow, considering the number of airlines which have gone bankrupt in recent months, but Iraqi Airways is a state-owned company and they don’t really need to make a profit to stay in business.

I’ve flown Iraqi Airways a few times out of Baghdad International Airport. It’s a unique experience to say they least. They’re known as a carrier that will take-off in all but the very worst sandstorms (which has advantages and disadvantages as you can imagine).

My story about Iraqi Airways has a stand-up shot on board a Boeing 727. The camera and editing work looks great (thanks to cameraman Uday and editor Pete) but behind the scenes, this was a tough shoot. The plane we videoed on had been sitting, locked up, on a side runway at Baghdad airport for about a month. It was 115 degrees outside, and much hotter standing inside what is basically a metal tube underneath a blazing sun. We kept our time inside the 727 to a minimum!

Oh – and in case you wondered about the title of this blog. Sometimes I try to reference TV shows in my blogs (the product of an over-active imagination). “The High Life” was a Scottish airline comedy from the mid-1990s, about the crew of a fictional national carrier called Air Scotia, starring actor Alan Cumming. DVDs available from all good retailers. Or maybe not.

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