A senior Homa official said that the new routes will accommodate flights between three cities in southern Iran to Doha, Press TV reported.

“Routine weekly flights to Doha from airports in Bandar Abbas, Assaluyeh and Lamerd are the three flight routes that this company has moved to launch in these days,” said Abolqassem Jalali, who serves as the commerce and operation deputy at Iran Air.

Jalali said planes that Iran Air purchased two years ago from the French turboprop maker ATR will serve the new flight routes.

He said the a first round trip flight from Doha to Assaluyeh, in Iran’s Bushehr Province and on the coast of the Persian Gulf, was just launched on Sunday and will take place on the same day every week.

The official said new flights between Bandar Abbas and Doha started on February 6 and will continue on Sundays and Thursdays every week.

The route from Lamerd in the Iranian Fars Province to Doha had also begun on Thursday and will continue once a week on the same day, said Jalali.

The new flight routes come amid growing economic and political relations between Iran and Qatar. That has come against the backdrop of a nearly three-year-old blockade imposed on the Persian Gulf country by several Arab states in the region, including Saudi Arabia.

Iranian businesses have taken a more active role in Qatar since the blockade was imposed in June 2017.

The routes also come after Iran launched a first shipping service from Bushehr to Qatar’s Hamad port in August 2019.

A number of flights to Tehran were canceled last week after the crash of a Ukrainian airliner in Iran, which Tehran later admitted it had shot down by mistake, Reuters reported.

Many airlines use Iran airspace, including Qatar Airways which is banned from flying over some neighboring Persian Gulf Arab states.

Meanwhile, deputy head of Iran-Qatar Joint Chamber of Commerce said on Wednesday that having an active direct shipping line between the two countries is a necessity for the expansion of trade ties between them.

“The boom in trade between Iran and Qatar, particularly in the areas of export and tourism, is in dire need of activation of the Bushehr-Qatar route,” Khorshid Gazderazi told IRNA.

In August 2019, Iran’s southern port of Bushehr launched a cargo and passenger shipping line with Qatar using a cargo/passenger ship called Grand Ferry, however, according to Gazderazi, the line hasn’t been much active due to the lack of support from the two sides.

According to the official, the shipping line was scheduled to operate once a week carrying both passengers and cargoes, but it couldn’t operate upon that schedule due to the heavy fuel costs.

“Considering the fact that the Qatar World Cup is ahead, the mentioned ship with its 2,000-passenger capacity should be active in the tourism sector from now on,” Gazderazi said.

Since 2017, when Qatar was sanctioned by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Iran has had a great opportunity for a stronger presence in the country’s market, according to the official.

“Over time, however, issues pertaining to quality and quantity of products, have affected Iran’s position among the rival exporters to Qatar and the Iranian Chamber of Commerce should pay special attention to this issue,” he added.

Iran has recently established or reactivated a number of sea travel routes, which is expected to lend a hand to the tourism sector that has fallen victim to a foreign currency crisis caused by sanctions.

As unilateral US sanctions against Iran snapped back, pressuring the country’s limited foreign currency reserves, the Islamic Republic is increasingly paying attention to marine travel as a major way of boosting its underdeveloped tourism sector.

The business forum was attended by officials from Zagros Airline as the operator of Tehran-Tashkent direct flights which will take place on Mondays.

Talking on the tourism potentials of his country, Abdullayev said Iranian travel agencies can help promote bilateral ties between the two nations.

He also said officials from both countries are in talks to launch direct flights from Iranian cities of Isfahan, Mashhad, and Tabriz to Uzbekistan.

Abdullayev said considering the common language in Uzbek cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Termez, Iranian tourists can enjoy their visits to those cities.

Some airlines have also agreed to establish direct flights to Iran to facilitate trade between the two countries, he said.

Earlier this month, the chairman of the State Committee for Tourism Development of Uzbekistan said that Iran was a good tourism market with a population of over 80 million, adding that historical cities in both countries will enjoy direct flight routes soon.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the 25th Tashkent International Tourism Fair (TITF 2019) – “Tourism on the Silk Road”, Abdulaziz Akkulov said a project was taken by both embassies of two countries to promote trade and tourism cooperation.

According to the talks, in the course of the next year, four Iranian cities, namely Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz and Tehran will start direct flights to Uzbek cities, which will be operated by Iran’s Zagros Airline, noted the official, adding that in the first step, the Bishkek-Tehran flight route will be launched.

Akkulov went on to say that Iran and Uzbekistan have suitable infrastructure which could help build a tourism bridge within the coming year.

TITF, which is the brightest, largest event in the tourism industry of Uzbekistan and the entire Central Asian region was held on November 13-15 in a total exhibition area of more than 10,000 square meters in the exhibition pavilions of Uzexpocenter.

The expo is held every year with official support from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for the implementation of the Great Silk Road transcontinental project since 1994.

TITF is an effective information platform for promoting tourism products and establishing business contacts. It allows leading experts in the field to exchange experiences, discuss current tourism problems, and introduce new directions. Leading experts normally announce pricing policies, discuss current tourism issues, and open up new directions.

Attracting hundreds of foreign tour operators including Iranian representatives of the tourism business, it is TITF that determines the potential of inbound tourism and provides a showcase on tourist opportunities in Uzbekistan. The exhibition demonstrates the development opportunities of Uzbekistan as a promising tourist region of Central Asia and the CIS.

The main goal of the fair is a visual representation of the entire tourism potential of the region, the implementation and promotion of tourism services by leading tour companies, hotel complexes, tourism agencies of regions and foreign countries.

Every year, dozens of international travel companies interested in Uzbekistan, as in a profitable destination, become its participants.

Presentation stalls of regions of Uzbekistan were erected in the National Pavilion, demonstrating features of the national culture and tourism potential of each region of Uzbekistan.

All days of the exhibition featured performances of folklore-ethnographic ensembles of Uzbekistan, a festival of national cuisine and a demonstration of handicrafts in a specialized city of artisans.