And some black coffee to finish.


Watching the heist comedy film, Logan Lucky, on the foldout IFE.


Looking down on irrigated farms as we approach Baghdad.


Taxiing to the terminal after a safe and conventional landing at Baghdad International Airport (BGW), renamed from Saddam International (SDA) after the American-led invasion in 2003.


Our jetbridge was non-operable so we had to catch a bus for the short ride to arrivals.


And with my passport stamped after a short queue at immigration.


Waiting by the luggage belt with one of the many Christmas trees that were about.


While waiting for my bag to come through I spotted Charlie, who was also here to join the Baghdad to Basra trip. He had also been on the flight from Dubai but had opted for a seat in the back.

A self-confessed aviation geek, as well as running an independent music label in London, he had a side job as a tour guide to North Korea and had been there 20 times!

After collecting our bags we headed through to catch up with the rest of the guys on the trip, who had arrived earlier on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul.

I finally got to meet Julian for the first time, the organiser of the trip and whom I had been conversing via email quite a bit to get my Iraqi visa sorted. Also on the trip was his sons Alastair and Harry, Danny from Austria and Andreas from Germany.

We then piled into a black Chevy Suburban with all our luggage to ride the ~5 kilometres to the airport carpark. Similar to when I had arrived at Erbil Airport in the north, it was not possible to drive private vehicles to/from the airport terminal and you had to catch an approved taxi instead.