TEHRAN – Flights to Turkey will likely be resumed on June 20 after nearly three months of suspension over the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior Iranian aviation official was quoted as saying by Press TV on Sunday.

Secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines (AIA) said on Sunday that Iranian airlines could resume flights to Turkey if reports about a pending decision by Ankara on reopening its air borders with Iran were true.

“We have received some unofficial report about this (issue) that the air border of this neighboring country will reopen next Saturday (June 20) so that passenger flights could resume,” Maqsoud As’adi-Samani was quoted as saying.

The pandemic has taken a huge toll on Iran’s civil aviation sector with reports showing that airlines lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of flight cancellations during the busy New Year travel season in late March.

Some 1.37 million Iranian tourists visited Turkey during the first eight months of 2019, accounting for 4.4% of all international arrivals in the country.

AFM/MG