Allegations of graft emerge post Iraqi Airways fleet audit

Qatar Airways tax evasion investigation underway in India

A long-running investigation by Indian financial crime agencies into alleged tax evasion by Middle Eastern airlines has recently focused on Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) and resulted in a request for documents from the airline and searches of the Indian offices of several Middle Eastern carriers.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), the Indian law enforcement agency responsible for tax evasion, led the office searches in October, which included searches of Qatar Airways' premises. Saying the focus on the Qatari airline was still in its "very initial stage," a DGGI spokesperson has also told Indian media outlets that the agency had uncovered incidents of tax evasion totalling INR57 billion rupees (USD685.1 million) involving over 6,000 fake instances of input tax credit claims between April 2020 and September. It is unclear whether the figures relate specifically to Qatar Airways or also include the other carriers under investigation. ch-aviation does not say that Qatar Airways or any other carrier has evaded taxes in India, only that allegations have been made and an investigation is underway.

Iraqi Airways claims it will resume EU flights in mid-4Q23

Pakistan's Fly Jinnah secures gov't okay for int'l ops

The Pakistani government has given Fly Jinnah (9P, Karachi International) its consent to commence scheduled international flights. Pakistani media report that a federal cabinet meeting last week approved the application after it secured the support of Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) and the prime minister's office.

In August, the Air Arabia-backed airline applied for the rights to operate flights to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Except for Azerbaijan, existing air service agreements between Pakistan and each country allow for multiple operators on the relevant country pairs.

While FlyJinnah has yet to disclose which market it intends to fly to first, except for Bangladesh, all the country pairs have at least one passenger operator already servicing them and, in some cases, multiple operators. According to ch-aviation schedules data, Kam Air is the sole scheduled operator on the Pakistan - Afghanistan country pair; AZALJET and PIA - Pakistan International Airlines operate on the Pakistan - Azerbaijan country pair; no scheduled passenger...

Iraq's Fly Baghdad issues wet-lease RFP for EU ops