Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Iran will add 39 aircrafts to its air fleet, owner of Qeshm Air Babak Zanjani told a local press.

According to Zanjani, the Sorinet Holding Company (which owns Qeshm Air) has invested some 20 trillion rials in the purchase of new aircrafts in the past 3.5 years, the Mehr News Agency reported.

Qeshm air recently added 17 aircrafts to its fleet.

According to Zanjani, his company previously bought 3 aircrafts. However it failed to receive them and the money was not returned to the company either.

In March 2013, Head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Hamidreza Pahlevani said that 19 aircrafts were added to Iran's air fleet last year. According to him, Tehran plans to launch two new airlines by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2014.

In April 2012, it was reported that Iran plans to increase the number of aircrafts and renew its 25 outdated planes. According to the report, the Iran Civil Aviation Organization will remove 25 planes with over 30 years of service from the fleet, most of which are Boeing 707 and Boeing 727 models.

Iran has several private and public airline companies in operation, the oldest of which is the state-run Iran Air, Press TV reported.

Due to imposed sanction on Iran, international companies are banned from selling aircraft or their spare parts to the country.

Iran is currently cooperating with Ukraine and Russia in the production and operation of the Antonov An-140 airliner, which can carry 52 passengers.

After purchasing the production license for the An-140 from Ukraine in 2000, Iran built its first Iran-140 passenger plane in 2003.