Iraq Cancels Three Mosul Airport Leases Over Alleged Militia Links

Iraq cancelled three commercial leases at Mosul International Airport on November 7, accusing the operators of links to armed groups it has refused to name.

Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi signed the decision. It terminates agreements covering seven passenger check-in counters, an airport car park and a taxi office. The operators are Sky Plus, Sama Al-Matar and Al-Faisal Al-Shamikh, respectively. Authorities have not identified the armed groups or published any supporting evidence. That gap matters.

What do the cancelled contracts cover?

Contract documents obtained by Shafaq News show the Iraqi Airports Administration signed all three leases on behalf of the Transport Ministry. Each ran an initial three-year term with a renewal option.

The specifics:

• Sky Plus, registered in the United Arab Emirates, leased seven check-in counters totalling 42 square metres in the passenger terminal.
• Sama Al-Matar held the lease on an uncovered parking area of 4,228 square metres.
• Al-Faisal Al-Shamikh, based in Basra, operated a four-square-metre taxi office in the arrivals hall.

No replacement operators have been announced. The government has given no timetable for transferring the three services.

A procurement fight was already underway

The cancellations did not emerge from a vacuum. Nineveh Governor Abdul Qader al-Dakhil said the Transport Ministry and airport administration awarded the contracts without consulting provincial authorities. He told local media he has taken legal action against former Transport Minister Razzaq Muhaibis al-Saadawi and the airport administration over the agreements.

So the armed-group allegations land on top of an active jurisdictional dispute over who controls commercial access to the airport. Baghdad has asserted federal authority. Nineveh's government contests the process. The public record supports neither the allegations nor the procurement claims so far.

An opening for foreign operators

Al-Zaidi paired the cancellations with an instruction to officials: accelerate plans for specialised international companies to participate in operating and jointly managing the airport. He had already invited foreign airport operators to invest in the facility during an October 12 visit to Mosul.

No management partner has been selected. No selection criteria or bidding process has been published. The invitation stands as intent, not a signed deal.

What does this change for foreign airport operators? For now, an opportunity without a framework — a prime ministerial invitation with no tender rules attached.

An airport rebuilt from ruins

Mosul International Airport was heavily damaged after Islamic State militants seized the city in June 2014. Reconstruction began in August 2022. Former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani officially inaugurated the rebuilt facility on July 16, 2025.

Commercial passenger traffic returned only this month. On November 6, 2025, Iraqi Airways flew the first passenger service between Mosul and Baghdad after an 11-year interruption. The reconstructed airport has a 3,000-metre runway and terminal infrastructure designed for up to 630,000 passengers annually.

That context frames the stakes. An airport reopened four months ago, sized for 630,000 passengers a year, has just stripped three ground-service contracts on unproven allegations while courting foreign management it has not yet defined.

Unanswered questions

The record leaves three gaps. The government has not named the armed groups. It has not published evidence. It has not explained how the three services — check-in, parking, taxi dispatch — will operate during any transition.

For airlines and prospective investors, the practical risk is continuity. Seven counters and a taxi desk are small assets, but they sit inside a facility whose commercial governance is now contested by a governor, a prime minister and a former transport minister in court.

Iraqi Airways resumed Baghdad–Mosul service on November 6; whether the airport's commercial base stabilises under new operators will depend on tenders Baghdad has yet to write.