A total of 24,763 flights carrying 1.95 million passengers were operated during the month ending March 20, showing an increase of 48% in the number of arrivals and landings, 26% in passengers and 34% in freight compared with the same month of the year before, says Siavash Amirmokri, managing director of Iran Airports Company.
“The number of domestic and international flights during the month grew by 48% and 62% year-on-year,” he added.
Compared with the preceding month (Jan. 20-Feb. 18), the number of arrivals and landings increased by 1%, the number of passengers slid by 1% and the volume of freight increased by 4% in the month ending March 20.
“A total of 4,170 international flights carrying 245,600 passengers and more than 13.6 million tons of freight were operated by airports owned by Iran Airports Company in the last year, indicating a decline of 79% in the number of arrivals and departures, 90% in the number of passengers and 73% in the volume of freight and parcels compared with the year before,” Amirmokri was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
The official put the number of domestic flights at 248,077 and passengers at 21.61 million in the fiscal 2020-21.
“The number of arrivals and landings to domestic terminals dropped by 19%, passengers by 39% and the volume of freight and parcels fell by 37% during the period. Altogether, the number of arrivals and landing operated by airports owned by IAC during last year dropped by 23%, passengers by 43% and freight by 43%,” he said.
Air travel and tourism have been the hardest-hit industries in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the impact of coronavirus and multiple government travel restrictions sweep throughout the world, many airlines have already been driven into technical bankruptcy, or are at least substantially in breach of debt covenants.
Iranian aviation officials believe that the sector needs at least three years to make a comeback.
The decline in global demand for air travels have also made a negative impact on Iranian airports' revenues. Revenues from air passenger traffic and aircraft flying over Iran’s airspace have declined by 80% since the coronavirus outbreak.
