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Budget shortage grounds Iran’s national aircraft production plan

Business Materials 17 November 2015 15:22 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, November 17

By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:

Lack of budget has grounded Iran's national plan to produce a 100-150 seater passenger aircraft, the project's director Manouchehr Manteghi stated.

Three years after the plan was launched, only 10 percent of the required budget has been received, he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency on November 17.

Manteghi remarked that while it costs an average of $50 million in other countries to create the conceptual design of a passenger aircraft, his team had accomplished the task in one-sixteenth of the aforementioned cost.

He added that in the first phase of building the aircraft, the conceptual design had been prepared and comprised 880 books, with each having 200-400 pages.

The effort to domestically build an aircraft follows Iran's affliction in the wake of international sanctions, with its fleet decrepit, and no access to help from outside.

Under the imposed sanctions, Iran has been barred from buying aircraft, parts, or services for the maintenance of its fleet.

Iran had earlier domestically built aircraft, which were largely assembled from parts of different aircraft. The Iran-140 passenger aircraft proved to be a disaster, and the fleet was grounded on President Hassan Rouhani's orders after a couple of deadly crashes.

The country is expected to be freed from sanctions in the coming months, following its nuclear deal with global powers.

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