12 October 2022; MEMO: The head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) Mohammad Mohammadi-Bakhshd said yesterday that the first Iranian-made passenger plane will enter service within the next three years, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
The official's remarks came more than a month after President Ebrahim Raisi announced plans to build the first Iranian passenger plane.
Mohammadi Bakhsh attributed the plans to the escalation of US and Western sanctions on his country, saying "despite conducting negotiations with Westerners, America and Europe did not take positive measures towards the civil aviation sector, but rather imposed new sanctions on passenger planes and providing us with fuel at international airports and deprived us of purchasing spare parts."
"In October last year, we had 98 aircraft operating as part of the country's airline fleet, and the number has increased to 175 aircraft within one year," he said.
He noted that increasing the size of the civil aviation fleet came as a result of bringing planes that had been out of service back in to operation by using locally-made spare parts, as well as purchasing second-hand planes.
