About 50% of the annual handling capacity of the country’s airports remains untapped, Mohammad Ali Ilkhani, Iran Airports Company Mohammad Ali Ilkhani said on Sunday.
"Only 54 out of the 70 airports are active," he said, as reported by IRNA. "Four airports are currently under construction and 12 belong to other institutions but they all render services to passengers." He said, "The annual handling capacity of the country's airports stands at over 80 million passengers, while last year only 43 million passengers used the country’s airports."
The number of airports in the country is sufficient, according to Ilkhani, who unveiled that his company is seeking to sign agreements with a foreign company to upgrade airport services. "Investment companies have expressed readiness to complete the second phase of Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA)," he underlined, noting that the required investment for the completion of the second phase of the airport is estimated to be around 30 trillion rials.
It was recently reported that a Chinese finance company called SCE Property Holdings Limited; a French company called Lyon Airport Company (CSCDC); and the Iranian Sana Pardakht Aras Co. are to make a joint investment to begin construction of the second phase of Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA).
IKIA is the main international airport of Iran, operated by the Iranian Airports Holding Company. The airport is the home base of many Iranian airlines. As of August 2014, the airport serves more than 40 airlines conducting over 700 weekly flights connecting Tehran to cities in over 30 countries and territories worldwide.
