So here's how the story goes:
A dear friend of mine who hadn't been to Baghdad for about 4 years, felt encouraged by the latest security improvements and felt safe enough to come to Baghdad and see the places and people he missed for so long.
He was as happy as a kid in a candy store as we drove from the Airport to Karrada where he stayed, especially when he saw the shops of Karrada and the night life on the street; something he haven't seen since 2003.
His visit went even better than what he had planned for. He told me how he commuted from Zayyouna to Karrada in Baghdad's eastern side in a 2008 car around midnight. He even went to Kerbala and a portion of his drive towards that city was at night, also in a brand-new car.
The visit was a great success as we can say; except for the last part.
He and i were leaving Baghdad, flying to Sulaimaniya. The ticket read 9:00am as the departure time, and the man at the Iraqi Airways office (which functions definitely worse than its then up-to-date shape it used to work with in the 1980s), strongly insisted that we should be at the Airport *three hours* before the flight. We decided to ignore that point, and it turned out that it was a wise thing to do.
I picked my friend at around 7:30, and we reached the Airport's drop zone at around 8:00am or so. By the time we got to the Terminal it was about 8:30am.
We went to the Iraqi Airways desk, and there we had our first shock of the day!
"No, the Sulaimaniya flight will depart at 2:00pm, but we will take you to the departure hall at midday!"
Great!
It turned out though, that some people were told earlier that it wouldn't leave until 2:00pm, and they even had that written on their tickets which they took from Iraqi Airways offices other than ours.
So, we had no choice but to sit and wait until we would be allowed to enter the more convenient departure hall after getting rid of our bags, and that was supposed to happen around midday.
During this time, there were two airplanefuls of Iranian relegious tourists who were waiting two flights to their country. They were so many, and they were not organized. The place was suddenly overcrowded by people putting rugs on the terminal floor, and sitting as if they were in some picnic!
If that wasn't enough, the Iranian trip organizer brought them lunch bags that had chicken among other things, and the whole terminal started smelling like chicken in no time! The Iranians were eating left and right as we, the Iraqis had to survive on biscuits. The Iranians filled the terminal with stacks of trash and the place was a real mess, and the Airport officials were doing absolutely nothing to control the chaos!
My friend and i managed to take some photos of this unusual situation through our cellphone cameras, and it was really a day to remember. The day Baghdad International Airport was turned to Baghdad Chicken Restaurant!
Now the weather between Baghdad and Amman wasn't very good that day, which caused the Royal Jordanian flight to be delayed. The Airport loudspeakers aired an apology from Royal Jordanian 4 times about the delay of that flight's arrival. As for Iraqi Airways, it never apologized, or perhaps it thought that it was too big to apologize!
You could guess that nothing happened by midday. It was after 1:00pm when they finally allowed us into the departure hall, which was already full of Iranians who entered the departure hall before us.
We were relatively happy that we would fly out of there in an hour's time, but no!
4 other hours would pass before we would!
It seems that we were supposed to fly out of Baghdad at 2:00pm, but a "very high ranking official" (whose name i wouldn't put here for legal reasons) wanted to fly to Erbil. His dark-windshield car parked next to the airplane, while we were waiting this airplane for 8 hours after the time written on our tickets! The plane which usually goes to Sulaimaniya before going to Erbil, was forced to go to Erbil first, then Sulaimaniya. So the whole delay (let's say from 2pm until 5pm) was just for "him" to come and fly whenever it was convenient for him!!!
The story didn't end here! When we landed in Erbil, the security man at the airplane said that they would stay for 30 minutes before taking off again. Their 30 minutes turned into 90!
When we arrived to Sulaimaniya Airport, we were warmly greeted, perhaps because they know of the long delay we had. This arrival was one of the best i've had to Sulaimaniya, but it unfortunately came only after a long, tiresome day.
This makes Iraq the only country in the World where driving up to somewhere is 3 times faster than flying to it!
A dear friend of mine who hadn't been to Baghdad for about 4 years, felt encouraged by the latest security improvements and felt safe enough to come to Baghdad and see the places and people he missed for so long.
He was as happy as a kid in a candy store as we drove from the Airport to Karrada where he stayed, especially when he saw the shops of Karrada and the night life on the street; something he haven't seen since 2003.
His visit went even better than what he had planned for. He told me how he commuted from Zayyouna to Karrada in Baghdad's eastern side in a 2008 car around midnight. He even went to Kerbala and a portion of his drive towards that city was at night, also in a brand-new car.
The visit was a great success as we can say; except for the last part.
He and i were leaving Baghdad, flying to Sulaimaniya. The ticket read 9:00am as the departure time, and the man at the Iraqi Airways office (which functions definitely worse than its then up-to-date shape it used to work with in the 1980s), strongly insisted that we should be at the Airport *three hours* before the flight. We decided to ignore that point, and it turned out that it was a wise thing to do.
I picked my friend at around 7:30, and we reached the Airport's drop zone at around 8:00am or so. By the time we got to the Terminal it was about 8:30am.
We went to the Iraqi Airways desk, and there we had our first shock of the day!
"No, the Sulaimaniya flight will depart at 2:00pm, but we will take you to the departure hall at midday!"
Great!
It turned out though, that some people were told earlier that it wouldn't leave until 2:00pm, and they even had that written on their tickets which they took from Iraqi Airways offices other than ours.
So, we had no choice but to sit and wait until we would be allowed to enter the more convenient departure hall after getting rid of our bags, and that was supposed to happen around midday.
During this time, there were two airplanefuls of Iranian relegious tourists who were waiting two flights to their country. They were so many, and they were not organized. The place was suddenly overcrowded by people putting rugs on the terminal floor, and sitting as if they were in some picnic!
If that wasn't enough, the Iranian trip organizer brought them lunch bags that had chicken among other things, and the whole terminal started smelling like chicken in no time! The Iranians were eating left and right as we, the Iraqis had to survive on biscuits. The Iranians filled the terminal with stacks of trash and the place was a real mess, and the Airport officials were doing absolutely nothing to control the chaos!
My friend and i managed to take some photos of this unusual situation through our cellphone cameras, and it was really a day to remember. The day Baghdad International Airport was turned to Baghdad Chicken Restaurant!
Now the weather between Baghdad and Amman wasn't very good that day, which caused the Royal Jordanian flight to be delayed. The Airport loudspeakers aired an apology from Royal Jordanian 4 times about the delay of that flight's arrival. As for Iraqi Airways, it never apologized, or perhaps it thought that it was too big to apologize!
You could guess that nothing happened by midday. It was after 1:00pm when they finally allowed us into the departure hall, which was already full of Iranians who entered the departure hall before us.
We were relatively happy that we would fly out of there in an hour's time, but no!
4 other hours would pass before we would!
It seems that we were supposed to fly out of Baghdad at 2:00pm, but a "very high ranking official" (whose name i wouldn't put here for legal reasons) wanted to fly to Erbil. His dark-windshield car parked next to the airplane, while we were waiting this airplane for 8 hours after the time written on our tickets! The plane which usually goes to Sulaimaniya before going to Erbil, was forced to go to Erbil first, then Sulaimaniya. So the whole delay (let's say from 2pm until 5pm) was just for "him" to come and fly whenever it was convenient for him!!!
The story didn't end here! When we landed in Erbil, the security man at the airplane said that they would stay for 30 minutes before taking off again. Their 30 minutes turned into 90!
When we arrived to Sulaimaniya Airport, we were warmly greeted, perhaps because they know of the long delay we had. This arrival was one of the best i've had to Sulaimaniya, but it unfortunately came only after a long, tiresome day.
This makes Iraq the only country in the World where driving up to somewhere is 3 times faster than flying to it!
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