Iran Air to Take Delivery of Three Airbuses From Turkey
He told reporters that Turkey will deliver the three other airbuses later (until the end of the winter season) and Iran Air will commission the secondhand airbuses for medium range flights.
He said that Iran Air has 27 airliners and with the delivery of the 10 planes in phases, Iran Air's fleet will increase to 37.
Keshavarzian said that Iran Air has recently grounded five aging aircraft and drawn up plans to replace them with the newly bought airbuses, IRNA said.
He said that the national flag-carrier will buy four airbuses A330s from France, if the supplier lifts economic sanctions on Iran.
Asked whether Iran air will utilize the eastern-manufactured passenger planes in its fleet, Keshavarzian said that Iran Air will utilize Iran 140s in its domestic flights and will buy any eastern or western airliners whose economic justifications were acceptable.
He rejected that criticisms by the State Inspectorate Organization on the purchase of airbuses from the United Arab Emirates and Turkey was made against commission from the sellers and pointed out that the inspectorate organization has criticized the purchase of secondhand airbuses and the sellers' failure to deliver accessories for maintenance.
Keshavarzian said the purchase of second hand airliners is a common practice and different airlines buy secondhand airplanes taking into account the condition of the planes, their models, total flight logging and the other technical specification.
On the airline's privatization plans and ceding 49 percent of Iran air shares, he hoped that the shares will be ceded to the private sector by the end of the Iranian year 1380 (March 2002).
According to the privatization plan, he said, Iran air will transfer part of its administrative operation to the private sector by the end of the current (Iranian) year.
Asked whether the Iranian airlines can compete with other international airlines if case of Iran's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Keshavarzian said that the Iranian airlines will work to boost productivity and secure its quota.
He said that Iran air managed to increase the number of passengers by 4.2 percent in the past year compared with the preceding year with transporting 7.5 million passengers. 5.9 million passengers in the domestic routes and 1.6 passengers in the international flights.
He said that growth in the domestic flights has been recorded at two percent and in international flights at 14 percent during the period (in the year ending March 2000).
He said that Iran air transferred 79,400 Hajj pilgrims on 222 flights to Jeddah and 225 return flight in the last Hajj season. He added that the flights were made from 18 domestic airports.
Iran Air tour, a domestic airlines, has transported 1.6 million passengers in its domestic routes using 15 airlines under lease.