Baku, Azerbaijan, July 19
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iranian airline, Aseman, is ready to negotiate with international companies for buying new planes once sanctions against the country are lifted, said Samad Aminzadeh, the airline's commercial manager.
It is for sure that the expansion of the passenger fleet is one of the main concerns of the country's aviation industry, he said, adding that preliminary talks are underway to pave the way for importing new planes, Iran's ISNA news agency reported on July 19.
Although any deal should be finalized and the situation should be prepared to transfer new planes to Iran, but it can be hoped that positive measures will be taken in this regard over the next months in the national aviation fleet, he said.
Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi said on July 15 that Iranian airlines are negotiating with a number of large international planemakers to renovate its aviation fleet.
Akhoundi said in June that the country will need 400 new passenger planes in the next 10 years in order to renovate its civil aviation fleet.
He added that purchasing this number of planes will cost the country at least $20 billion.
"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 added.