Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's Kish Air will buy 10 new planes in the current Iranian fiscal year that started on March 20, said Kish Free Zone Organization Managing Director Ali Asghar Moonesan.
Each plane costs around $17 million, Iran's IRIB quoted Moonesan as saying on June 7.
Three planes will be added to the Kish Air fleet in summer, he said, adding that seven other planes will be bought directly from Boeing, if possible.
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.
Last year, Ali Reza Jahangirian, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, said the country's airlines would need to order 400 aircraft over the next 10 years to replace its depleting and ageing fleet.
Another Iranian airline, Mahan Air, has recently bought nine Airbus passenger planes, which is a new record after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The planes included seven Airbus A340-600, one A310 Airbus and one A321 Airbus.
The planes were 12-13 years old. They were bought from European countries and will increase the passenger capacity of Iran's civil aviation fleet by 3,000 seats.
Iran's administration has banned domestic airlines from importing or renting the planes older than 15 years aimed to renew the Islamic Republic's civil air fleet.