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The Department of Transportation and Iraq's Civil Aviation Authority have certified the country's first three air traffic controllers and another 22 in the pipeline are slated to get the thumbs up later this year. These controllers are the first to receive training based on international aviation safety standards.
"It is yet another sign of how Iraqis are taking charge of their own destiny," said Mary Peters, US Secretary of Transportation. "While the job of these controllers will be to help direct the skies, their mission will be to help guide this nation to a new future."
Inspirational sound bites aside, the certifications are important. Iraq has six major commercial airports - Baghdad International, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk, Bamerny and Al Muthana. US and coalition forces have been running the show at all of them since the invasion in 2003, but now responsibility for civilian airspace above 29,000 feet is in the hands of Iraqi controllers.
If the certification process for the Iraqis is anything like that required of their US counterparts, it's no cake walk.
According to the Department of Labor, controller trainees in the US must enroll in an FAA-approved education program and pass an eight-hour pre-employment test. After that, they head to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City for 12 weeks of training and then work as controllers-in-training for two to four years until they are finally certified.
Iraqi controllers will find their training coming in handy -- they'll be responsible for at least 30,000
commercial flights a month, and this number is expected to bump up in a major way. Middle Eastern airlines like Emirates increasingly pass through Iraqi airspace en route to other destinations, and the Iraqis are prepping their own national airline. The reconstituted Air Iraq has ordered 30 Boeing 737s and is firming up plans for 10 787 Dreamliners.
According to the airline's website, Air Iraq will launch service to a range of Gulf States as well as serving key international destinations. One of the first on their list? Baghdad to Baltimore/Washington.
Photo of the control tower at Baghdad International Airport by Flickr user James Gordon.
