Iraqi Airways agrees to add Kurdish to languages used for in-flight instructions

The head of Iraq’s national airline on Sunday agreed to a suggestion by a leading official to add Kurdish to the languages used for in-flight instructions.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The head of Iraq’s national airline on Sunday agreed to a suggestion by a leading official to add Kurdish to the languages used for in-flight instructions.

The exchange came during a meeting between the Director General of Iraqi Airways, Abbas Nasser Majeed, and the second deputy parliamentary speaker and member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Bashir Haddad.

Haddad asked Iraqi Airways “to present the in-flight instructions in the Kurdish language as well,” a statement by the deputy speaker’s office read. The airline company currently only uses English and Arabic for this service.

In response, according to Haddad, Majeed “expressed approval to add the Kurdish language” to said services. The airline operates in the two international airports in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani and Erbil.

As per the Iraqi Constitution, Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages of the country.

The two officials also discussed the status of the airline within the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Operational Safety Audit of which, or IOSA, Iraq is seeking to obtain, in hopes of being able to rejoin the IATA.

Since 2015, the airline has been prevented from flying over any European Union airspace for its non-compliance with public safety standards.

The company is serious about implementing all the conditions needed to obtain once again complete membership in IATA, Majeed said according to Haddad’s office.

IOSA is “an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany