Senior Iranian Aviation Official Downplays Impacts of US Sanctions

A senior member of the presiding board of Iran Airports Company underscored that the US has failed in crippling Iran's air industry through pressures and sanctions.

"On the first days after imposition of sanctions, the West expected that our air industry would be crippled within a few years but we are witnessing that 40 years after the Islamic Revolution's victory and different pressures and embargos, the flights are carried out normally and the airports have not been closed and instead the number of flights have increased and we could obviate the negative impacts of sanctions," Saeed Akbari told FNA on Tuesday.

He added that despite the US sanctions, many airlines prefer to use Iran's airspace given its high security and safety and good services.

"The efforts by Iranian experts have paved the ground for Iran to confront the enemies' sanctions and pressures in a way that foreign experts are surprised and ask us how we have survived," Akbari said.

Iran’s Deputy Transportation Minister Shahram Adamnejad announced in October that the country’s largest airline IranAir had posted an operating profit for the last local calendar year ended on March 20, 2019, highlighting that the achievement was made despite all US sanctions against the country’s aviation industry.

Adamnejad said that IranAir had posted the unspecified profit during an annual shareholder meeting held earlier in the day in Tehran.

IranAir is expected to announce increased revenues for the current calendar year ending March 2020 mainly because it accommodated a large number of flights carrying Iranian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj season in September.

The company announced during the busy travel season that it had scrambled technicians and engineers to keep planes airworthy despite sanctions that ban using foreign companies for maintenance services.

Despite a US ban on its purchase of 200 aircraft from Airbus, Boeing and ATR, IranAir has pressed ahead with an ambitious fleet expansion program as it seeks buying planes whose sales are not affected by the sanctions.

It said last year any offer from companies based in Russia and in non-European countries to deliver new planes would be welcome.

Adamnejad said that an operating profit recorded for Homa, as the carrier’s short name goes in Persian, at a time of “increased costs and oppressive sanctions” was a result of better performance in fields including ticket sale, cargo, engineering, ground services and cost control.

“It is expected that through implementing fleet expansion programs at Homa and increased sale revenues for the company, its profit-making run could accelerate by several times,” he said.