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Persian Gulf airlines fly over Iran

reporter 1222 — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 12:00:51 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Persian Gulf airlines, including Qatar Airways and Emirates, continue to fly in Iraqi and Iranian airspace and to cities in both countries after a recent military standoff between Iran and the US which led to the downing of a Ukrainian airliner near Tehran.

In the latest flare-up, a US drone strike assassinated top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq on January 3 and Iran fired missiles at US bases in Iraq on January 8 in retaliation.

Shortly after the retaliatory missile strike, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Ukraine International Airlines was accidentally shot down after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, killing all 176 people on board.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic said on January 11 that the plane had flown close to a sensitive military site and been brought down due to human error “at a time of crisis caused by US adventurism.”

Following the incident, some international carriers, including Lufthansa, Air France, Singapore Airlines and Qantas, rerouted flights to avoid Iraq and Iran.

“Iranian airspace is important for all carriers in this region,” said Adil al-Ghaith, Emirates’ senior vice president for commercial operations in the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, and Iran.

Dubai-based Emirates and sister carrier flydubai together serve 10 cities in Iran and Iraq and have continued to use the airspace of both countries.

Kuwait Airways and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, among Persian Gulf airlines, have also continued using Iranian and Iraqi airspace.

“We will continue to fly to Iran because Iran is an important country to us and it is our neighbor and we want to serve the people of Iran,” Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said on the sidelines of a Kuwait aviation conference.

The United Arab Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) told its carriers — Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia — this month to “evaluate flight path risks that may affect aviation operations” although it said it was up to the airlines to make the final decision on the routes they chose.

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Passenger Plane Fleet to Expand Despite US Sanctions

reporter 1222 — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 12:37:47 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Transportation Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that his country will add new passenger plane to its fleet in the near future despite the fact that the US unilateral sanctions are barring foreign companies and entities from selling anything related to civil aviation to Tehran.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Eslami announced that the new airbus passenger plane will be delivered to the country in the very near future amid sanctions that have made it difficult for airlines to renovate their fleet.

The minister did not elaborate on details of the deliveries, weather the planes were new and which airline would get hold of them.

Local media said that the planes will be delivered to flag carrier Homa, known internationally as IranAir.

There was no confirmation from the company, neither was there any other report suggesting that the airline prepared to get the deliveries in the near future.

However, a Friday report by another local source said that Iran’s Kish Airlines had leased three Airbus planes from a foreign country and that the deliveries were due.

The delivery of the three new Airbus planes to Iran comes amid tight sanctions imposed by the United States which have effectively barred the country from buying new aircraft.

The sanctions, enacted in November last year, even caused Airbus to stop the planned delivery of planes ordered by Iran in 2016.

Airbus has delivered only three of a total of 112 planes ordered by Homa. Two more deliveries planned for late 2018 did not happen.

Homa has also ordered 80 planes from American plane-maker Boeing and 20 more from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR.

The ATR sent 11 aircraft to Iran before the US imposed bans on the sale of commercial planes to Iran last year while Boeing has made no deliveries at all.

Iranian officials say the government has paid no down payment for future deliveries of the planes ordered in 2016.

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Illegal sanctions on Iranian airline, shipping imposed

reporter 1222 — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 12:45:49 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The United States has unveiled new illegal sanctions this time targeting an Iranian airline and the country’s shipping industry.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it was targeting new sanctions on Mahan Air and Iran’s shipping industry over baseless allegations that Iran supports “terrorists” in Yemen, under aggression from Saudi Arabia.

Three general sales agents of Mahan Air are part of the new illegal sanctions on Iranian airline, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Washington.

The new sanctions were announced only days after prisoner swap between Tehran and Washington.

Hawkish Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin claimed that the Iranian government “uses its aviation and shipping industries to supply its regional terrorist and militant groups with weapons, directly contributing to the devastating humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen,” adding that “aviation and shipping industries should be vigilant and not allow their industries to be exploited by terrorists.”

The Trump administration has spared no efforts in support for Saudi Arabia in its constant bombing of the impoverished Yemen.

Washington’s policy in the Middle East over the past decades has only increased tension and instability in the oil-rich region and led to gruesome phenomena such as the rise of the Daesh Takfiri group.

Iran has slammed Saudi Arabia for the continuation of its warmongering policy against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in Yemen.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has said that Iran will keep its military advisory presence in Syria as long as Tehran finds it “effective and useful.”

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