Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Only 10-15 percent of Iran's air fleet is less than 15 years old, deputy manager of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Hamid Habibi said.
Habibi said that the average age of domestic airlines' airplanes is 21 years old, Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported on Jan. 3.
"Around 85 percent of Iran's airplanes are 15-40 years old," he explained.
Iranian minister of roads and urban development, Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi said on Dec. 20 that the country has banned domestic airlines from importing or renting planes older than 15 years.
"Previously there was no age-limitation for imported aircrafts," he said, adding that airlines have imported even 40-year old planes.
He said that the new decision is aimed to renew the Islamic Republic's civil air fleet, which is one of the oldest in the world.
Back in November head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Alireza Jahangirian said that the organization has issued license for aircraft imports by private sector investors.
The US-led sanctions on aircraft and spare parts exports to Iran have left the Iranian airlines saddled with not only some of the oldest fleet in the Middle East, but in the world.
Jahangirian said that the country needs at least 300 operational airplanes, while currently the country has only about 150, each of which are averagely 20 years old.
The Islamic Republic also has 76 in storage with an average age of 24 years.
While Iran has attempted to kick start its own commercial aviation manufacturing industry and has also sourced aircraft from Russia and Ukraine, its efforts to acquire Western-made aircraft and spare parts have largely failed due to sanctions.
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