The Iraqi Ministry of Transport have awarded the contract of security of Baghdad International Airport to British company G4S/ArmorGroup for a period of two years after the approval of the Iraqi General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers during their meeting No 40 dated 3 November 2009.

G4S is the largest security services provider in the world and one of the largest security provider in the UK. G4S employs 635,000 people in 115 countries across six continents making it the second largest private sector employer in the world.

G4S Aviation Security and Management provides aviation security services in 38 countries around the world to over 95 airports.

Baghdad International Airport is located approximately 16 kilometres West of Baghdad. The airfield is a joint civil-military airport, with a civil international terminal on one side and a smaller military area on the other. The airport is served by a Class I runway 13,000 feet long and a second runway on the military side of the airfield measuring 8,800 feet. There are 3 designated Terminals Samarah, Babylon and Nineveh. Currently the Nineveh terminal is used for commercial flight traffic, and the Babylon terminal is opened during the Hajj religious period for the management of the increased passenger traffic during this time. The Babylon terminal is scheduled to be operational on a full time basis in 2010. Under existing arrangements airport access is designated for passengers, airline personnel, ICAA Employees and BIAP industrial businesses.

Baghdad International Airport is the main Iraqi Airways hub, operating domestic services to Basra, Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Najaf, and international flights to Istanbul, Stockholm, Cairo, Amman, Damascus, Beirut, Tehran and Dubai. Operational expansion plans are designed to increase the scope and range of international services.

G4S will deliver all the benefits of its internationally recognized and extensive experience for quality in the aviation security and services sector for the nation of Iraq. This will additionally be a demonstration by the nation of Iraq to its current and future international partners that the nation of Iraq has both the intent and capability to deliver a world class, internationally accepted and recognized aviation security and services capability to international standards.

Using G4S will also benefit and promote the economic development of Iraq by assisting in the delivery of a domestic aviation service and security system that will provide the stability from which economic prosperity can be delivered by the nation of Iraq to its people and for which it can be proud on the international stage.

Al-Burhan Group have been representing G4S and intend to further develop this cooperation and work together for future projects in this field. Iraq is now considered by international companies as “open for business” and G4S see their involvement as a move towards the acceptance of a “normalisation of Iraq” for investment business.