Tehran, Iran, Feb.4
Trend:
Iran has seen significant improvement in its aviation industry during the past 40 years, despite the limitations caused by US sanctions, Spokesman for Iran Aviation Organization (CAO) Reza Jafarzadeh said in an interview with Trend.
"Based on Chicago Convention, all members should be committed to air safety and cooperate for development of aviation sector, by providing equipment and market for its needs. But unfortunately, the US has imposed limitations for Iran over the past 40 years," he said.
Jafarzadeh noted that the US wanted to cripple Iran's air transportation and started to take political measures against the country’s aviation industry, since this is an important part of Iran's economy. "So they targeted this industry and applied harsh limitations, but Iran had remarkable development in this sphere despite limitations."
Referring to the country's achievements during past four decades, he recalled that Iran had 25 aircraft in 1979, but at the moment this figure has reached 311. "Iran had 4,170 plane seats, now their number has reached 48,000."
He went on to add that private sector has not been active in this field before, but at the moment 70 percent of air transportations are operated by the private sector. The number of airports in 1979 were 43, but now they have increased to 73 airports, added Jafarzadeh.
The number of flight routes in 1979 was 10, while today there are 127 flight routes, he concluded.