The old airport was situated about 6 miles to the east from the current one, on the right bank of Shatt Al-Arab (so it can accommodate the seaplanes). In 1937-1938 an airport terminal for Imperial Airways was built by British architects James Mollison Wilson and Harold Mason with an unusual appearance resembling an imperial palace. The airport was built in the 1980s and then developed in the 1980s by the Iraqi Government department State Organisation for Roads and Bridges (SORB) as a gateway to the only port in Iraq. It is claimed that the airport was built only as a facility for VIPs and was only used rarely. Renovation of the airport was supposed to proceed with the construction of a new terminal under German contract but the project prematurely ceased with the outbreak of the 1991 Gulf War. Actual development proceeded in the airport only after the 2003 US led invasion of Iraq. Some facilities were refurbished under a contract by United States Agency for International Development. The project is broad as it includes building air traffic control towers and other navigational facilities, as well as the construction of transportation and communications facilities. The airport was eventually reopened in June 2004. The event was marked by the traditional sheep sacrifice as an Iraqi Airways Boeing 727 jet landed from Baghdad. It was the beginning of a new domestic service in Iraq between Baghdad and Basra. However, many of the passengers complained about the lack of basic facilities. Problems included air conditioning and toilets. Reconstruction of the airport is still under way to improve the facilities. Iraqi Airways has already operated routes from this airport, and was its second hub. Between 2003 and 2009 there was a significant Royal Air Force presence at the airport as No. 903 Expeditionary Air Wing was deployed here with a variety of fixed-wing and rotary such as: Fixed-wing Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules C.4 & C.5 British Aerospace 125 Rotary Boeing Chinook HC.2 Westland Sea King HC.4 Westland Lynx AH.7/AH.9 Westland Gazelle AH.1 Westland Puma HC.1 Westland Merlin HC.3 The unit was re-deployed to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan during mid 2009. The United States Army has also deployed a number of aircraft to Basra irregularly: Boeing AH-64 Apache The Danish Air Force also deployed some aircraft: Eurocopter Squirrel