Airline companies’ debts to Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport amount to 5,100 billion rials ($20 million), the director general of the airport said.
“Iran’s four major airlines have unpaid debts worth over 3,850 billion rials [$15.4 million] to Mehrabad for services they have received from the airport. The smallest of such debts is 100 billion rials [$400,000] and the biggest is 1,670 billion rials [$6.68 million],” Ebrahim Moradi was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“The airlines’ failure to repay their debts would lead to a decline in the airport’s quality of services as well as its incapability to fund its various projects,” he added.
Younes Daqiqkia, the head of Association of Iranian Airlines, said the transportation industry has suffered a great deal throughout the coronavirus pandemic due to lockdowns and quarantines.
“It saw a decline of 43% in the number of passengers for domestic flights and 96% in the number of passengers for international flights during the first six months of the current year [March 20-Sept. 21],” he added.
In a letter sent recently to President Hassan Rouhani asking for lifting the obligation of airlines to sell tickets at up to 60% of planes’ total seating capacity for domestic flights, Daqiqkia said, “The limit set by the Health Ministry for selling tickets at up to 60% of a plane’s total seating capacity has placed serious economic pressure on airline companies. This is while limiting capacity on flights has not been recommended by the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization or the International Air Transport Association so far, which constantly monitor the impacts of coronavirus on air travel. Scientific studies by IATA on aircraft cabin air systems and the seat layout inside passenger airliners show that the risk of contracting Covid-19 on board a flight is very low.”
According to IATA, since the beginning of 2020, 1.2 billion passengers have traveled while there have been fewer than 100 documented cases of COVID-19 reported in which transmission is thought to have been associated with a flight journey (inclusive of confirmed, probably and potential cases). “That’s one case for every 27 million travelers,” the head of the Association of Iranian Airlines quoted IATA as saying.
A total of 45,800 flights were handled at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport during the six months, marking a 26% decline compared with the same period of last year.
The airport's passenger traffic declined by 28% to 4.55 million people, mostly as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. The total volume of cargo transported through Mehrabad stood at 31,000 tons during the period, marking a 21% decrease compared with last year's corresponding period.
Before the construction of Tehran’s larger new airport (Imam Khomeini International Airport) in 2007, Mehrabad was Tehran's prime airport handling both international and domestic traffic but after 2007, international flights were transferred to IKIA.
All international flights in Tehran are currently served by Imam Khomeini International Airport and all domestic flights are handled by Mehrabad.
