TEHRAN (Iran News) The flights have been established between Iran’s International Payam Airport and the UAE’s International Al Maktoum Airport, said Mojtaba Shamsnezhad, deputy for aviation affairs at the Payam Airport located in Alborz Province, near the capital Tehran.

He said on Sunday that the first flight landed in Payam Airport earlier in the day.

Three flights will be carried out per week to import goods, machinery and parts required by manufacturers of ICT and electronic devices in Iran, the official noted, adding that those flights will take place on Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) As many as 74,111 passengers traveled between Tehran and Istanbul from October 15-29, IRNA reported Chalandari as saying on Saturday.

After the sanctions, only 10 Iranian airlines flew to or from Istanbul, he said.

To meet the needs of Iranians, flights to Istanbul and Dubai were put on the agenda through coordination with the relevant authorities, he said.

Regarding other destinations, 171,148 Iranian passengers were transported by 1,130 flights after the sanctions, he noted.

The sanctions have caused financial and time losses for Iranians intending to travel to Europe and vice versa, resulting in the need for two flights to travel to Europe instead of one direct flight, he further noted.

Iran’s Human Rights Secretary has condemned the EU’s recent sanctions on three Iranian passenger airlines, calling them a violation of international law and an infringement on Iranian citizens’ rights.

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Speaking in the 38th meeting of representatives of the chamber in presence of Head of the National Development Fund Mr. Mehdi Ghazanfari, Head of TCCIMA Mr. Masoud Khansari admitted that some $45b of capital has flown out of the country in recent four years.

He said that sharp decline in social investment is the major reason for decline in the investments in the country, adding that investment has shifted towards the early-yielding investments which is a plague for the national economy.

Khansari went on to say that the annual flight of elites has increased, and emphasized that last year some 160 elites and heart specialists left the country and if this condition continues, in the upcoming years the country will face with shortage of specialists.

Khansari blasted the sanctions and compared it with termite which destroying the country and said that the final cost of products in Iran is high and the prices now are uncompetitive and Iran has lost many markets.  He continued to say that the annual export volume of engineering and technical services was once $5b and it has declined to $300m now.

He said that the average inflation rate of prices has been 4.7% and it means we have witnessed 100% rise in prices every year.

Khansari also pointed to the Seventh Five-Year Development Plan and said that the plan has forecasted 8% economic growth and single rate inflation but we should be realistic and analyze reasons for failures in the past because the country was to achieve 46.9% growth in the previous plan while the economy saw 3.44% growth.

He expressed satisfaction over Iran’s joining the Shanghai Cooperation Summit.

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Speaking to ILNA and touching upon renovation of navigation equipment and systems, Siavosh Amirmokri said that that systems in the field of navigation operation are divided in three groups of navigational aid, communication and monitoring (radar system) that 90 percent of the needs in the communication system is provided by the domestic producers and there is no concern in this field due to the country’s capabilities.

He went on to say that in the field of navigational aid in the past four years and during the JCPOA, the company purchased major part of its required equipment and some of the systems came on stream and they are now in use.

Pointing to the condition of monitoring systems better to say radar system, Amirmokri said in this field the country is to some extent dependent on foreign companies, adding that major part of needs in this field were also provided during the JCPOA and the country bought two radar systems and installed them and these two systems cover the activities of the two national crowded airports and one radar system will come on stream fully by next April.

He reiterated due to the cruel sanctions, the company resorted to the domestic producers to provide some of its needs, adding that Isfahan Industrial University is one of the producers which has signed contract for manufacturing advanced radar MSSR-S and the university is to deliver it by the end of next year.

He added that in the past, Iran used to provide this radar system from France and Spain and now Isfahan-produced radar will be used in the national navigation.

Flight Check airplanes fly preplanned low-altitude patterns–such as grids, orbits, DME arcs, tracks, instrument approaches and low (50 ft agl) passes along the full length of the runway–often in the opposite direction of the normal traffic flow

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According To Iran News, International travel used to be a popular and prestigious holiday activity for Iranians, but the value of Iranian Rial has decreased rapidly in the past few years and judging by our sales statistics at trip.ir, many Iranians can’t afford airplane ticket and hotel reservation for international travels anymore. Apart from the heavy expenses and the problematic currency exchange rate, the government has been increasing the departure tax lately. These are the reasons why the rate of international travel for Iranians has decreased by 6.5% in the first 3 months of 1398, compared to the previous year.

Since international travel is not cost-beneficial for many Iranians anymore and is even frowned upon and criticized as a luxurious benefit that no normal family would be able to afford, the demand for domestic travel has increased. Nowadays, many Iran tourist attractions that used to be almost empty, are rife with new tourists.

The Challenges Iranians have for International Travels 

As was mentioned, international travel has become less popular among Iranians. Let’s review the causes, this time with more detail:

• High Price of Airplane Tickets: The overly expensive airplane tickets are perhaps the biggest obstacle for traveling abroad. The price of airline tickets has tripled or even quadrupled in a very short period, mostly due to the heavy sanctions. The sections have had a deep effect on all aspects of the economy, but their effect on the price of airplane tickets for international flights has been especially severed. because unlike domestic flights, their price is determined by international currency, not Rial. Airline companies have tried to minimize their loss by decreasing the number of flights and increasing the price of tickets, resulting in unaffordable prices, especially when the demand is high, like during the holidays.
• High Price of Hotel Reservation: Even if Iranians manage to find an affordable ticket to their desired destination, reserving a hotel room might cause problems since they have to be paid for with Euro or Dollar. When it comes to international travel, the distinction between “cheap hotels” and “expensive hotels” has become less clear for Iranians. Of course, some travel agencies have tried to make hotel rooms more affordable for customers by offering special price packages and special tours. but nowadays, most of people go abroad for work-related reasons – namely businessmen and representatives of big businesses – and they won’t need these kinds of aids. For others, considering how high the prices are, these financial aids might still not make the prices affordable.
• High Departure Tax: With the government’s new enactment in 1397, the departure tax increased considerably. According to this law, passengers have to pay 2,20,000 Rials as a departure tax. The passengers who exit Iran the second or third time, have to pay 3,30,000 and 4,400,000 Rials respectively. This departure tax has harmed the Iranians’ tendency towards international travel.

Challenges of Domestic Travel among Iranians 

While the popularity of domestic travel is on the rise, this form of travel also has its problems. Some of them are unique to domestic travel, while some of them overlap with the challenges of international travel. To name a few:

• High Price of Airplane Tickets: While the price of airplane tickets for domestic travel is lower than international travel, it is still expensive for many Iranians. For example, according to the prices listed on the “Trip. IR”, a one week trip to Kish in winter would cost between 1.5 to 2 million Tomans for two people, and that’s the price of plane tickets alone. Of course, that might not seem a lot, but we need to consider the fact that in times of economic hardship, luxuries such as traveling are among the first casualties. So even if we were to ignore international travel, the high price of airplane tickets is an issue that needs to be fixed.
• General Inflation: In the past few years, Iran has faced a serious inflation problem and there was a sudden price spike for all sorts of the commodity. This is why even when Iranians plan to travel within the country, they try to minimize their costs by not buying souvenirs, eating at cheaper restaurants and even camping outdoors, instead of renting hotel rooms.
• Obscurity of Iranian Tourist Destinations: Due to its rich history and four-season climate, Iran has the potential to be one of the most attractive tourist attractions in the world. There are architectural wonders in Iran comparable to the world-famous Gothic cathedrals of Europe, but there is not enough effort to present a tourist-friendly image of the country to the world and this is why these attractions don’t get the attention they deserve, even among Iranians themselves.

How “Trip. IR” Can Help the Growth of Domestic Tourism

Even though international and domestic travel both have their disadvantages, in the current circumstances, domestic traveling seems more cost-beneficial. However, some companies are trying to smooth out the process of traveling for Iranians in these difficult times and reduce the negative effects of the challenges mentioned above. “Trip” is one of such companies.

“Trip.ir” is an online travel agency that plans to make traveling as easy and stress-free as possible for Iranians. The website provides a list of options for buying airplane tickets and hotel reservations and the customer can choose the most desired option based on the prices. The trip also offers special tours with reasonable discounts and provides travel insurance, which covers the medical expenses of the customer’s voyage. Also, in case the customers lose their passport or any other important document, the travel insurance will cover their loss.

Apart from the challenges mentioned, one of the reasons for people’s reluctance to travel is the lack of information and unfamiliarity with the sources. Many people wrongly think that the process of buying an airplane ticket and reserving a hotel is complicated and time-consuming, so they don’t bother at all, even though they might be interested in the idea of traveling.

Thanks to websites like “Trip.ir”, all the information a customer might need to put their mind at ease is laid out before them, even down to the preferred hour of departure. Thanks to these online features and the transparency they provide, customers can reduce their engagement with the more rudimentary aspects of traveling to a minimum.

In the future, if the economic situation improves and the government manages to present a more appealing image of Iranian tourist destinations and cultural sites, we are going to witness a rise in Iranian tourism industry and websites like “Trip.ir” are more than eager to facilitate this process.

For more information you can check out the Trip.ir website as well:

www.trip.ir

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The Iranian Parliament member said that the number of foreign visits of Iranian MPs has been reduced.

Rahimi added that business class flights have been canceled for MPs and all overseas flights are being operated as regular ones since Sept. 22.

The Iranian MP said that cutting the costs began last Iranian year (started March 21, 2018).

“Last year, business class flights were limited to only those lasting more than three hours,” he said.

The number of flights operated by Iranian airlines in the last fiscal year (March 2018-19) fell by 14% compared with the year before to stand at 218,900, the secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines said.

“The total number of air passengers reached 25.8 million last year, registering a decline of 16% year-on-year. Last year, a total of 178,705 flights were carried out on domestic routes, which show a 13% decrease compared with the year before,” Maqsoud Asadi-Samani was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

The official noted that the number of passengers on domestic flights dropped by 15% to stand at 20.7 million.

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