January 2011
Iran
- Iran ends Tupolev flights
- 12 January 2011
- By Various
- All Iranian airline companies have received orders to end their Tupolev flights by mid February, head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization announced on January 15.
Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Reza Nakhjavani in a letter to Iranian airline companies stressed that flight schedules are not allowed for Tupolev-154 passenger planes from February 20.
A statement made to Fars New Agency by Nakhjavani said that all Iranian airline companies which have Tupolev-154 in their fleet are required to end operation of their Tupolevs by February 19.
A decision was taken in October 2010 to discard all aircraft manufactured by the former Eastern Bloc countries but the withdrawal of the Russian aircraft was accelerated in December after the Russian Tupolev-manufacturing company withheld the requested reports on the crash of its airplanes in Iran.
"The investigation report into the main cause of the crash of the Tupolev passenger plane of the Caspian Airline was finalized by Iran's Civil Aviation Organization and was reflected to the Russians but the Russian manufacturing company and the country's Aviation Organization refrained to provide a response in this regard," CAO President Nakhjavani told FNA in December.
"This is one of the reasons that Iran's Civil Aviation Organization decided to remove Tupolevs from the country's aviation fleet," he added.
The remarks by Nakhjavani came after several Russian-made passenger planes crashed in Iran in just a few months.
The October decision came after an announcement in August by Iranian Road and Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani that the country would be importing 13 Boeing MDs and six Airbus passenger planes in a matter of months.
"Five Boeing MD planes (out of 13 planes) have already been imported and the rest of the planes will arrive in the country soon," Behbahani told FNA.
Iran has recently started a plan to renew its air fleet not only through purchase of foreign planes, but also through domestic production in a bid to improve conditions in its aviation industry. It recently started production of a passenger plane known as IRAN-140.
Iran Air Tours, one of the Iranian airline companies using Tupolev planes, announced in October that it had replaced its Tupolev planes with two Boeing passenger planes line with the country's plan for replacing the Russian plane with safer airliners.
"Following the Civil Aviation Organization's assistance and support for the continued activity of Iran Air Tour company and the replacement of Tupolev-154 planes, the CAO issued the needed license for the operation of two Boeing MDs for the company last week," Director-General of CAO's Office of Flight Engineering Mostafa Haqiqatjou said in October, 2010.
He added that Iran Air Tour has already introduced its plans and time-table for a gradual replacement of its Tupolev planes to the CAO.
During 2010 Iran witnessed two air crashes. The first incident occured when a Tupolev-154M crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, killing all 168 passengers onboard.
