Iran's Air Transport Performance Promising

Iran Airports Company registered more than 463,000 takeoffs and landings in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2017), which shows a 15% rise compared with the previous year, IAC reported on its website.

Iran Airports Company is an arm of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, managing 54 airports across the country.

More than 57.5 million passengers and 550,000 tons of cargo were transported during the period, indicating a 17% and 12% growth respectively year-on-year.

As for domestic flights, 380,696 takeoffs and landings were registered, up 18% over the preceding year.

Forty-six million passengers and 340,000 tons of goods were moved inside the country, indicating a 21% and 19% rise respectively.           

On the international front, aircraft movement remained unchanged compared to the Iranian year that ended on March 19, 2016, with 82,305 takeoffs and landings. A total of 11.5 million passengers and 209,600 tons of cargo were transported to and from overseas destinations, indicating a 3% and 2% increase respectively.

Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport was Iran’s busiest airport during the period. It recorded a total of 133,863 takeoffs and landings during the period, indicating a 17% rise. The airport handled 16.7 million passengers and 113,600 tons of cargo, up 20% and 17% respectively.

Mashhad International Airport, located in the city of Mashhad in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province, with 70,619 and Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport with 54,098 takeoffs and landings ranked second and third respectively.

Some 10 million passengers and 88,000 tons of cargo were transported via Mashhad’s airport, showing a 17% and 10% rise respectively.

IKIA handled 7.9 million passengers and 149,000 tons of cargo, each increasing by 9%.

The IAC data also show 382,162 international flights flew over Iran’s airspace during the 12-month period, registering an 11% rise.

  New Year Holiday Peak

The company has also released flight stats during the Iranian New Year holidays from March 15 to April 4.

According to IAC, more than 30,250 flights were made to and from airports across the country during the period carrying close to 3,722,000 passengers, which indicates a 14% and 16% rise in the number of flights and passengers respectively compared with the corresponding period of last year.

Mehrabad was also the busiest Iranian airport during the Iranian New Year holidays (March 21-April 2), as 8,162 flights were made to and from the airport carrying 989,000 passengers, up 15% and 20% respectively.  

IKIA ranked second with 4,591 flights that transported over 676,160 passengers, registering a 13% and 10% rise.

And the third busiest airport during the holidays was Mashhad International Airport with 4,198 flights that carried 610,000 passengers, up 18% and 22% respectively.