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14:46 | 2011-01-15 Economy
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Tupolev-154 Planes End Operation in Iran in February
TEHRAN (FNA)- All Iranian airline companies have received orders to end their Tupolev flights by mid February, head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization announced on Saturday.
Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization Reza Nakhjavani in a letter to Iranian airline companies stressed that flight schedules are not allowed for Tupolev-154 passenger planes from February 20.
"All Iranian airline companies which have Tupolev-154 in their fleet are required to end operation of their Tupolevs by February 19," Nakhjavani told FNA.
The CAO had earlier underlined that the four Iranian airline companies which are using Tupolev planes in their passenger fleets should replace the Russian made plane with other airliners.
Iran has recently 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 August, Iranian Road and Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani announced the country's plans to import 13 Boeing MDs and six Airbus passenger planes in a matter of months.
"Five Boeing MD planes (out of 13 planes) have already been imported and the rest of the planes will arrive in the country soon," Behbahani told FNA at the time.
Meanwhile, Iran has recently started production of a passenger plane known as IRAN-140.
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced in Summer that his ministry is ready to mass-produce the home-made IRAN-140 passenger and cargo plane.
Also in August, Head of the Islamic Republic National Carrier Farhad Parvaresh announced that all of Iran's Tupolev airplanes would be replaced with Boeing MD.
Parvaresh said that "another fleet will replace the civilian Tupolevs of all Iranian airline companies by March".
Also, Iran Air Tours, another Iranian airline company using Tupolev planes, announced in October that it had replaced its Tupolev planes with two Boeing passenger planes line with the country's plan for replacing the Russian plane with safer airliners.
"Following the Civil Aviation Organization's assistance and support for the continued activity of Iran Air Tour company and the replacement of Tupolev-154 planes,
the CAO issued the needed license for the operation of two Boeing MDs for the company last week," Director-General of CAO's Office of Flight Engineering Mostafa Haqiqatjou said in October, 2010.
He added that Iran Air Tour has already introduced its plans and time-table for a gradual replacement of its Tupolev planes to the CAO.
Yet, Minister Behbahani told FNA in October that not just Tupolev, but all the planes produced by the countries formerly known as the Eastern Block are discarded from the Iranian fleet of passenger planes.
He added that 40 planes will be replaced by new passenger planes which have or are being purchased from the other countries as well as a number airliners which have been overhauled by Iranian experts.
But Iran accelerated its Tupolev replacement plan in December after the Russian Tupolev-manufacturing company withheld the requested reports on the crash of its airplanes in Iran.
"The investigation report into the main cause of the crash of the Tupolev passenger plane of the Caspian Airline was finalized by Iran's Civil Aviation Organization and was reflected to the Russians but the Russian manufacturing company and the country's Aviation Organization refrained to provide a response in this regard," CAO President Nakhjavani told FNA in December.
"This is one of the reasons that Iran's Civil Aviation Organization decided to remove Tupolevs from the country's aviation fleet," he added.
The remarks by Nakhjavani came after several Russian-made passenger planes crashed in Iran in just a few months.
Only in 2010, the country witnessed two air crashes. The first incident happened when a Tupolev-154M crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, killing all 168 passengers onboard.
In the worst air disaster in Iran in years in 2009, a Caspian Airlines Tupolev-154 caught fire in mid-air en route to Armenia and plunged into farmland in July 2009, killing all 153 passengers and 15 crew.
Strange it may be, Iran provided about the easiest place to still fly them. Sad to see them go even there.