TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is planning to manufacture 70-seated passenger planes in the near future, a senior aviation official announced on Sunday.

"We have designed a home-made passenger plane with the capacity for 70 passengers which will be manufactured in the near future," Managing Director of Iran’s Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Company Mohammad Ali Sirati told reporters on Sunday.

In November, Managing-Director of the Iranian Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) Manouchehr Manteqi said that his organization planned to manufacture 8-seater passenger planes.

"We will build planes with the capacity of eight passengers in the near future in addition to the present two-, four- and six-seater planes," Manteqi said, addressing the opening ceremony of the 7th International Air and Aviation Industries Exhibition on the Persian Gulf island of Kish.

He noted that a sum of 530 knowledge-based aviation companies are active in this field, and said, "We have foreseen  $100 billion in revenues from exports in this sector."

In 2013, Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Hamid Reza Pahlevani announced that a number of home-made passenger planes, capable of carrying 80, 100 and 150 passengers, will join the country's air fleet.

The Islamic Republic of Iran plans to manufacture three domestically-designed passenger planes by 2026, Pahlevani said at the time.

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

By Fars News Agency