Iran needs new planes to renovate ageing aviation fleet
By Sara Rajabova
Iran’s aviation industry, which has been under international sanctions over the years, is in need of new passenger planes to upgrade its ageing fleet.
Abbas Akhoundi, Iran's minister of roads and urbanization, said the country will need 400 new passenger planes in the next 10 years in order to renovate its civil aviation fleet.
Akhoundi, who visited France to take part in the 2015 Le Bourget Airshow, added that purchasing this number of planes will cost the country at least $ 20 billion, Press TV reported.
“At present, the average age of Iran's civil aviation fleet stands at about 20 years and it will be over 30 years in the next ten years, and many of our passenger planes will not be able to fly by that time,” he said.
Iran added several new airplanes to its air fleet, a while ago,but it has suffered heavily from international sanctions over several decades.
Iran’s need for passenger planes has increased as the country expects to see an improvement in its transactions with foreign countries should a final nuclear deal be reached between world powers and Iran.
Since the country reached a tentative nuclear framework agreement in Lausanne in early April, it has anticipated a surge in activities and Iran has said to be keen to revamping its fleet.
Akhoundi also said the Islamic Republic attaches special importance to the development of its civil aviation fleet, noting that the fleet itself, and the development of airports and passenger terminals also needspecial attention.
He further added that Iran created 6,000 km of new air corridor last year, noting right now, there are nine passenger terminals under construction in various Iranian airports, which will enable those airports to handle 50 million passengers per year.
Western imposed sanctions have barred Iran from buying western aircraft since the 1970s.
Moreover, the U.S. Treasury has barred Iranian airlines, including Iran Air, from landing or operating in the U.S. Extraterritorial U.S. sanctions prevent European airports from providing Iranian carriers with fuel or accepting their money.
However, a preliminary agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in November 2013 led to an easing of sanctions in the aviation sector. Tehran was allowed the limited purchase of aircraft parts and repairs, but not aircraft.
The U.S.–led sanctions on aircraft and spare parts exports to Iran have left the Iranian airlines saddled with not only some of the oldest fleet in the Middle East, but also in the world.
Iran's four largest carriers - Iran Air, Aseman Airlines, Mahan Air and Iran Air Tours - all have average fleet age above 22 years, according to Iranian media outlets.
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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