Iraqi Airways (IA, Baghdad) will be the recipient of the B777-200(LR) (MSN 40993) first flown in March 2012 and then not taken up by financially struggling Air Austral (UU, St. Denis de la Réunion). According to a report by Air Journal, the aircraft has been acquired by the government of Iraq which will lease the aircraft to its national carrier. Iraqi Airways has also just taken delivery of its first A330-200 YI-AQY (c/n 1339) at the end of November. It plans to aggressively expand operations now that the legal disputes with Kuwait have been settled. The B777-200(LR) in question had previously been rumoured to be the single aircraft Boeing (BOE, Washington National) has sold to Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) earlier this year but it appears that such reports have been false.