Photo Aircraft
From an Iran Tours Corp. ad: "Our backing is our experience"

Post-1979 airline industry

(Updated June 6, 1997)

Nader Saad
The Iranian
June 1997

Every Iranian should be proud of Iran Air's achievements before 1979 and in the 18 years after 1979. As Anthony Vandyk wrote in Air Transport World (July 1991): "Iran's flag carrier continues to command industry respect for its success in surviving - and indeed prospering - in the face of adversity."

Iran Air, with 9,800 employees, 16 wide body aircraft and 20 narrow body aircraft in 1995, carried 5,776,000 passengers. In the same year, Saudia Airlines, with 24,000 employees, 52 wide body aircraft and 20 narrow body aircraft, carried 5,676,000 passengers. This shows Iran Air staff -- all 9,800 of them -- have done a great job under very difficult circumstances.

The following information is what I have gathered from various sources. If any readers have more up to date information, please share it.

Iran Air (June 1996)

Four Boeing 747 SP
Five Boeing 747-100/200
Three Boeing 737-200
Seven Boeing 727
Four Boeing 707-300 4 (planned for phase out)
Five Airbus A300B2-200
Two Airbus A300-600 (added to the fleet in 1994)
Six Fokker 100 (added to the fleet in 1991)
Total 36

Asseman Airlines This domestic airline flies between Tehran and smaller cities and provides charter service to the government. In recent years they have started to fly more modern aircraft. The following is its fleet information as of December 1994:

Three Islander
Nine Commander
Three Chieftain
Four Falcon 20
One Fokker F27-600
Two FH227B
Five Fokker F28-4000
Four ATR 72 (added to the fleet in 1993)
One ATR 42 (added to the fleet in 1993)
Four Boeing 727-200 (used aircraft added to the fleet in 1994)
Total 36

Mahan Airlines This airline flies between Tehran and Kerman. It uses leased aircraft from Russia's Aeroflot, mainly Tu-154s. This information may be out of date. No up to date information available.

Kish Airlines Flies between Tehran and Kish free trade zone with Russian aircraft, possibly AN-26 turboprops.

Caspian Airlines A joint venture between Iranian and Russian entities, flying between Tehran and other major cities. The aircraft are all Russian made Yak-42 Tri jets.

Safiran Airlines In 1996 it was reported that this startup airline had acquired four Airbus A300-4B aircraft for charter service in Iran.

Iran Air Tour This is a domestic charter airline owned by Iran Air. It uses leased Aeroflot aircraft, mainly Tu-154s.

National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) Airlines This airline is based in Ahvaz and flies to Abadan, Khark Island, Masjed Soleiman and other locations that NIOC operates. The NIOC airlines was based in Abadan before the start of Iran-Iraq war in 1980. This airline started operations in the 1960s.

Three Fokker 50 (acquired in 1991 or 1992)

SAHA Airlines I am not sure about the name, but this airline is operated by the Iranian air force and uses Boeing 707 and C130 aircraft.

Mohammad Ebrahimi ads: SAHA stands for "Service Ertebaataat Havaaee Artesh" (military air transportatation service). Besides Boeing 707 and C-130, they also use smaller planes, including Friendship F-27, in some routes like Zahedan-Birjand-Mashhad, etc.


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