TEHRAN, Iran – Some well-known European airlines have announced readiness to establish new flight routes or increase weekly flights to Iran, according to an Iranian aviation official.
Mohammad Khodakarami, the deputy director of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), said Germany’s main carrier Lufthansa is seeking to raise the number of its flights to Iran from the currently eight per week.
The official said the number of flights between Iran and Germany has risen to 14 per week as another German airline has recently launched flights to Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran and Portugal have signed a memorandum of understanding for establishment of a flight route between the two countries, Khodakarami stated, adding that a Greek airline is demanding establishment of three flights to Iran per week.
Also, Italy’s flag-carrier Alitalia is asking for increasing the number of its Iran flights to five per week, he mentioned.
On April 15, Press TV quoted CAO Director Alireza Jahangirian as saying that foreign aircraft industries have been competing to get into a deal with Iran once the sanctions against the country over its nuclear program are lifted.
The official said many aircraft manufacturers have visited the country in the past year, even before the recent Tehran-P5+1 statement in Switzerland on the Iranian nuclear program, which laid the ground for further negotiations toward a comprehensive nuclear deal.
He said these companies have been in talks with Iranian airlines and the CAO over Iran’s air transport.
Last year, major US aerospace manufacturers, Boeing and General Electric, applied for export licenses in order to sell airliner parts to Iran following the November 2013 deal.
