Iran Air

Iran Air is Iran's flag carrier airline. Its acronym is Homa (هما in Persian), formed from the initial letters of the name in Persian, هواپیمایی ملی ایرانHavapeyma'i-ye Melli-ye Iran. It operates services to 20 scheduled and 5 charter destinations. Its main base is Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran.

History

Iran Air was established on February 24, 1962, after Iranian Airways and Persian Air Services joined together under the name of Iran National Airlines Corporation, known as Iran Air. Iranian Airways had been the first Iranian flag carrier and was formed in 1946. The first planes used by the company were the Avro York, Douglas DC-3, Douglas DC-6 and Vickers Viscount. The carrier became a full member of IATA in 1964.

In 1965, the company received its first jet plane, the Boeing 727-100, followed by the Boeing 737-200 in 1971, the stretched Boeing 727-200 in 1974, and three variants of Boeing 747 (-100, -200 and the venerable SP) starting in 1975. By the mid 1970s Iran Air was serving many major European cities with direct and a few one-stop flights (there were over 30 flights per week to London alone). The route to New York was opened with Boeing 707 aircraft with a stopover at London Heathrow but that service was later augumented and eventually replaced by direct flights operated with Boeing 747SP. The first direct flight from Tehran to New York was in May 1975, allowing the carrier to operate the longest-range non-stop scheduled commercial service in the world at the time.

On Oct. 8, 1972, Iran Air placed an order with British Aircraft Corporation (manufacturing partner of Aerospatiale) for 2 Concorde supersonic jets plus 1 option. These orders were cancelled in April 1980 (after the Islamic revolution), making Iran Air the very last "foreign" airline to cancel its Concorde orders, leaving British Airways and Air France as the only future Concorde operators. In 1978, the airline bought six Airbus A300-B4 aircraft to be used on its domestic and regional routes. By the end of that year, Iran Air was serving thirty-one international destinations stretching from New York to Beijing and Tokyo, and was planning direct services to Los Angeles and Australia using its long range 747SP and its strategic geographical hub in Tehran, a midway point between East and West.

By the late 1970s, Iran Air was the fastest growing airline in the world and one of the most profitable. By 1976, Iran Air was ranked second only to Qantas as the world’s safest airline that had been accident free for at least 10 consecutive years (although both airlines were accident free, Iran Air came second only because of fewer operational hours flown compared to Qantas). Prior to this ranking, Iran Air’s last fatal accident occurred 24 years earlier on December 25, 1952, in which 27 of the 29 passengers onboard perished when their Douglas DC-3 crashed on landing.

With the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran Air had to halt its services to New York, as a consequence of the embargo imposed by the United States. Because of that, the Boeing 747SPs began to be used heavily on the airline's European and Asian routes. During the 1990s Iran Air was able to buy Fokker F100s, but, again because of the embargo, this was the only type that joined the fleet during the 1990s. In 2001 the airline bought six second-hand Airbus A310 aircraft (five -200 and one -300), when the United States blocked its purchase of new Airbus A330 aircraft. In 2005, the carrier bought another 2 ex-Olympic Airlines Airbus A300-600s. However due to increased tension between the governments United States and Iran over Iran's nuclear program, one incentive to stop was a proposal between 6 world powers (the US and members of the EU) to send new parts or planes from Boeing to the ageing fleet of Iran Air

The airline is wholly owned by the Government of Iran and employs 8,887 staff.

Incidents and accidents

December 25, 1952; Iran Air Douglas DC-3; Tehran, Iran: 27 fatalities and 2 survivors
January 21, 1980; Iran Air Boeing 727-86; near Tehran, Iran: The aircraft hit high ground in a snowstorm during the approach to land. All eight crew members and 120 passengers were killed.
On 3 July, 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was flying over the Persian Gulf on its way to Dubai from Bandar Abbas. The USS Vincennes, a U.S. Navy cruiser equipped with the most sophisticated radar and electronic battle gear, apparently mistook the airliner for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat. When the aircrew failed to respond to a message, the cruiser shot the airliner down with a missile killing all 16 crew and 274 passengers. The United States called the incident a tragic mistake. Newsweek published a long article ( “Sea of Lies”, July 13, 1992) that largely blamed Capt. Will Rogers, the Vincennes' commander. See Iran Air Flight 655.

Services

Iran operates the following services (at January 2005):

Domestic scheduled destinations: Ahwaz, Ardabil, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Lengeh, Bushehr, Chahbahar, Qeshm, Isfahan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Kish, Mashhad, Rasht, Sari, Shahre-Kord, Shiraz, Tabriz, Tehran, Urmia, Yazd and Zahedan.
International scheduled services: Almaty, Amsterdam, Ankara, Bahrain, Baku, Beijing, Beirut, Cologne, Copenhagen, Damascus, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Istanbul, Jeddah, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, London, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Mumbai, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Sharjah, Stockholm, Tashkent, Tokyo and Vienna.

See also Timetables

Fleet

The Iran Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (at December 2005):

Iran Air is in the process of retiring the 747SP, 747-100B and 747-200B. The 737s and 707s were retired in the mid 1990s. If the incentives for Iran to stop nuclear power are accepted, Iran Air will be permitted to buy Airbus planes and parts for its Boeing planes.

External links

Regional Iran Air websites:

Iran Air UK - Information for flights to the UK and North America
Iran Air Germany - In German and English
Iran Air Austria - In German
Iran Air Netherlands - In English
Iran Air Italy - In Italian
Iran Air East Asia - In Japanese and Korean

Historical reviews: For a complete history of the airline see:

The Evolution of the Iranian Airlines Industry, by Abbas Atrvash.

References

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