TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Deputy Road and Urbanization Minister Ali Mohammad Nourian announced that the country has allocated 5% of its National Development Fund for the renovation of its old passenger fleet.


�5% of the National Development Fund facilities is allocated to the renovation of the air fleet and the airlines are to import minus 10-year-old airplanes using the facilities,� Nourian told FNA on Sunday.

In relevant remarks in May, Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Hamid Reza Pahlavani announced that several new passenger planes will join the country's air fleet in the current Iranian year (started March 21).

"A number of planes will be added to the national fleet this year," Pahlavani said.

Also in April, Iran announced that its national carrier, IranAir (Homa), added six new passenger planes to its fleet in the last Iranian year (ended March 20).

According to a report by the official website or the Iranian Ministry of Road and Urban Development, IranAir added 6 new passenger planes last year.

Since 2010 Iran has started a plan to renew its air fleet not only through purchase of foreign planes, but also through domestic production in a bid to improve conditions in its aviation industry.

In January, Pahlavani 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, Pahlavani said at the time.

Iran announced last year that it aims to fly its first Antonov-158 jointly built with the Ukrainian company in 2013.

The new air vehicle with a seating capacity of 100 passengers will be the next generation of Iran-140 airplane.

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

The first IRAN-140 aircraft was introduced by Iran in 2003. Five domestically-manufactured IRAN-140 planes were completed in October 2008 to increase the country's transportation capacity and upgrade the Iranian passenger fleet.

The IRAN-140 is a double-engine turboprop aircraft which can fly almost 1,865 miles before re-fuelling and its passenger model seats 52 people.

By Fars News Agency

 

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