Azerbaijan, Baku, July.31/ Trend R.Zamanov
Three Airbus 321 aircrafts would be added to Iranian Taban Airlines' fleet in near future, the company's managing director said on Wednesday.
Taban Air is going to import the mentioned aircrafts from Sweden, the ISNA News Agency quoted Asghar Abdollahpour as saying.
Taban Air currently owns 5 airplanes. It is an airline headquartered in the Ekbatan Complex in Tehran, Iran, with its main operational base in Mashhad. It operates international, domestic and charter routes as a scheduled carrier. The airline was established in 2005 and started operations in 2006.
The owner of Qeshm Air Babak Zanjani said on July 3 that 39 airplanes would be added to the airlines' fleet next year.
Zanjani also said that Sorinet Holding Company (which owns Qeshm Air) has invested some 20 trillion rials (some $1.63 billion based on the official rate of USD and $606 million based on the free market rate) in buying new airplanes in the past 3.5 years, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Qeshm air has recently added 17 airplanes to its fleet.
According to Zanjani, his company previously bought 3 airplanes but failed to receive them. The money was not returned to the company either.
Head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Hamidreza Pahlevani said in March that nineteen airplanes were added to Iran's air fleet last year.
He also said that Tehran plans to launch two new airlines by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2014).
Commenting on licenses issued for the establishment of new airlines, the official said Iran aviation authorities have granted 18 new licenses to eligible companies last year, which are currently completing their air fleet.
Iran has several private and public airline companies in operation. The oldest is the state-run Iran Air.
Due to imposed sanction on Iran, international companies are banned from selling aircraft or their spare parts to the country.
Iran is currently cooperating with Ukraine and Russia in the production and operation of the Antonov An-140 airliner, which can carry 52 passengers.
After purchasing the production license for the An-140 from Ukraine in 2000, Iran built its first Iran-140 passenger plane in 2003.
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