Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.13
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran needs to import 50 airplanes annually at a cost of $2.5 million each.
Head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Alireza Jahangirian said the national aviation fleet is comprised of 250 airplanes, but 100 of the airplanes are grounded due to the shortage of spare parts, Iran's ISNA news agency reported on Aug. 13.
Some 600 new airplanes should be added to the national aviation fleet in the next 11 years, he added.
Airplanes of the national aviation fleet are 21 years old on average, he noted.
Jahangirian said on May 17 that half of the grounded planes are irreparable.
"Age and depreciation were the main reasons for grounding the planes," he explained. "The grounded planes had 150-200 seat capacity."
He went on to add that, if international sanctions are lifted, the national aviation industry will burgeon in all production, maintenance, and international affairs.
Under the Geneva nuclear agreement, which eases sanctions against Iran, Tehran is allowed to purchase plane parts.
Despite the fact that the agreement was signed in November last year Boeing and General Electric corporations received a license from the U.S. Treasury Department just on April 4 to export plane parts to Iran.