Iran plans to add 14 planes to fleet

Iran plans to add 8 Boeing MD and 6 Airbus passenger planes to its aviation fleet "in the near future," Iranian Roads and Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani says, Press TV reported.

"Joining new Western planes into the fleet and replacing old planes show the ineffectiveness of US sanctions on importing new planes and aircraft spare parts," Behbahani told the Fars News Agency on Monday.

Behbahani said 5 Boeing MD planes have already joined the country's air fleet as Iran is currently trying to renovate its planes.

In reaction to several accidents involving Russian-built Tupolev passenger planes in Iran, the country weighs discharging its entire Tupolev fleet. More than 20 Tupolev airplanes are currently in service by different Iranian airline companies.

Iran has suffered a string of aviation disasters over the past decade, most involving private airlines using Russian-made planes and crew.

Officials have blamed the incidents on a ban by the US on the sale of new airplanes and spare parts to Iran, forcing it to purchase the parts from Russia and other former Soviet states.

In the worst plane crash in Iran, a Tupolev-154M, crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, 2009, leaving all 168 passengers onboard dead.