Iran reportedly preparing for direct flights to US
Deputy minister tells local press that air service, currently barred by a host of US sanctions, could resume by end of year
Iran is making preparations for direct flights to and from the United States, according to an official quoted by Iranian news site Tasnim.
“The required preparations have been made and if negotiations in the coming days move in a positive direction, we will be ready to launch the flights by the end of 2013,” said Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Ali Mohammad Nourian.
He added that at first flights will be chartered, and that several American and Canadian airlines had expressed interest in the route.
Direct flights between the countries were suspended in 1979 after the Islamic revolution.
This is not the first time the Iranians have expressed hope that the flights would resume.
In June, the state-run English language Press TV reported that Iran Air and Delta would resume flights between the US and Iran. The report turned out to be entirely false.
Then in September, a week after a telephone chat between new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and US President Barack Obama, the Iranian leader asked aviation authorities to study the possibility of resuming such flights.
American sanctions on Iran’s civilian air industry affect more than just direct flights. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has pursued sanctions against Tehran’s flagship carrier, Iran Air, since 1995. It prohibits US companies from cooperating with the Iranian airline, and forbids manufacturers from servicing or providing spare parts to Iranian planes.
“Iran Air is not simply a passenger airline,” wrote Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen in 2012. “Rather, Iran Air provides material support to two organizations deeply involved in Iran’s weapons proliferation — the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, which oversees Iran’s ballistic missile program, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which orchestrates arms shipments to and from Iran.”
In 2010, the Obama administration passed extraterritorial sanctions, keeping oil companies from refueling Iranian planes in Europe and Asia.
The sanctions have left Iran’s civilian planes outdated and dangerous, with at least 13 crashes since 2005. However, the Bush administration signed a license allowing Boeing to service its planes flying in Iranian airlines.
Only one major European carrier, Lufthansa, still flies to Iran.
In 2010, the European Commission barred Iran Air from using Europe’s air space. In addition, EU oil sanctions have driven aircraft fuel up, even causing a one-day halt in flights early this year and inflating ticket prices.