In 2008 while TooMuchFS was flying around the Bering Sea and the plains of southern Canada (I was flying Dash-8s by the way) I was thinking about flying regional turboprops (like a Dash-8 or Do-328) around the mountains of the "Stans". I was making some preliminary stops in northern Afghanistan and began wondering, "If it weren't for the United States' 'War on Global Terror' what would air operations look like in this region?" I was contemplating a feature FOTM in the area but other than towering mountains and some main airports there really wasn't a lot to be seen in FS2004.
Note: Thankfully Brad had us fly THE STANS in May 2011.
In 2009 while TooMuchFS was flying around Turkey the thought of an Iraqi air service kept teasing me. At that point I began working up a vision for restoring regularly scheduled flights from Baghdad; generally reconnecting Iraq with the rest of the aviation world. Thus was born our March 2012 FOTM – 3 years ago!
I decided that regional turboprop flights weren't going to initially be viable, so after some investigation and market research I came up with the 757 flight detailed in the FOTM. Over the last three years, with access to my untold billions, I have been able to build on that one 757 flight to Milan. Join me now for a brief look at Babylonian Air Service 2012:
We have kept our first, vital flight to Milan but have took a page from FedEx and upgraded a former Bimen DC-10. This flight is four times per week. We also offer DC-10 service to Paris twice weekly. Le Bourget closed to International traffic back in 1977 but the runways are certainly long enough for the DC-10! It's not always easy working with the French but if you wave enough money around ...
We still have our 757 in service, flying to Islamabad, Karachi, Istanbul, Cairo, Bangkok and Kunming.
We use our 707 as a flight-ready backup for any of these 757 or DC-10 flights as well as for Charter, Contract or Government flights as needed. Recently our 707 has been seen in Kigali, London and Hong Kong.
As our global reach has expanded and our Babylonian history is becoming known and respected, we have purchased an IL-76 Cargo aircraft used, among other things, to ferry museum pieces around the globe – this also has expanded our marketing reach. "This Los Angeles exhibit of Babylonian Art brought to you (literally) by Babylonian Air Service."
One of the most profound changes we have started in the past year is regional service throughout the Middle East with EMB-170 and Dash-8 aircraft sharing flights to as many as twelve cities from Lebanon and Syria to Iran, the Caspian and Persian Gulf Resorts.
Finally, just in 2012, we have started providing local flights within Iraq. Even with the blank scenery provided in FSX, we have been using two Jetstream-31s and the Dash-8 for these flights along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; occasionally venturing North into Turkey and South into the Persian Gulf. These flights are not scheduled as are our other flights but are on a fee-for-service basis; When we have enough folks wanting to fly in a certain direction, we'll fly there, often having to make many stop-offs along the way. Wait times for these flights have just been around 12-14 hours on average.
