TEHRAN – Iran will allocate $1.5 billion annually to renovate its civil aviation fleet, Mohammad Khodakarami, the acting director of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), said.

The budget will pave the way for buying 50-60 new planes over the course of 10 years, the ILNA news agency quoted Khodakarami as saying on Sunday.

“Both quality and quantity are of importance. We are following a diversification policy, with the priority placed on buying short-range planes.”

“Several packages of proposals have been sent from different countries to Iran, he said, adding that the proposals are being studied. Meanwhile, different airlines have put in requests to launch new flights or raise the number of flights to the country,” Khodakarami said.

Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi said on July 15 that Iranian airlines are negotiating with a number of large international planemakers to renovate its aviation fleet.

He added that the country will need 400 new passenger planes in the next 10 years.
He added that purchasing this number of planes will cost the country at least $20 billion.

Foreign aircraft industries have been competing to get into a deal with Iran once the sanctions against the country over its nuclear program are lifted.
 
Last year, major U.S. aerospace manufacturers, Boeing and General Electric, applied for export licenses in order to sell airliner parts to Iran