Page 46 - IRANRptMay21

Iran ‘working on production line for 100 seat passenger plane’
version spread throughout the country in recent weeks.
A spokesman from the CAO said that countries including UK, Angola, South Africa, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Eswatini, French Guinea, Lesotho, Guyana, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Rwanda, Seychelles, Suriname, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe were now added to the red list.
All passengers above the age of 8 “including Iranian citizens” coming from abroad must present a valid negative COVID‐19 test certificate at the port of entry, he added.
Earlier on February 27 the head of Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company (IAC) announced a $76mn decline in the country’s aviation industry revenues during 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
According to Siavash Amirmokri, air passenger numbers in Iran decreased by 52% in 2020, the IAC Office of Public Relations reported.
The country’s air traffic also declined by 67% year on year due to the decline in travellers.
The news of the new restrictions comes as the official death toll in Iran has now officially surpassed 60,000.
Outside estimates previously reported last year the death figure was well above 100,000 and Iran's reporting of figures was low for the size of the population.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the authorities to step up their vigilance to keep the county free from the new strains of the coronavirus.
Iran is planning to establish a production line for a 100-seat commercial passenger plane, Iran’s Civil Aviation Network News has reported the head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Touraj Dehqani Zanganeh as saying.
The CAO would reportedly work with the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics to roll out the production facility.
“We plan to build 70 and 100-seat aircraft inside the country, and [in this regard] we signed a memorandum of understanding with the defense ministry to use the country’s existing military capabilities for the construction of commercial aircraft,” Dehqani Zanganeh was cited as saying.
The Transport and Urban Development Ministry and CAO also signed the memorandum, he said.
Another memorandum is to be signed by the CAO and the Iranian Advanced Aviation and Transportation Technology Development Headquarters.
The project for the production of the aircraft was in the primary studies stage, the official Dehqani Zanganeh was also quoted as saying, adding: “I recently visited the production centre for these aircraft; significant progress has been achieved."
“There are a lot of knowledge-based companies established in the country that have great potential; Mapna, and another company are currently building gas turbines, and we are helping them to build aircraft engines,” he added. Deehqani Zanganeh also mentioned that the CAO was pursuing a project for manufacturing flight simulators which would be based on Kish Island.
9.1.4 Transport sector news
Iran, Russia step up promotion of INSTC as alternative to
Iran and Russia throughout April have stepped up efforts to promote the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) as an alternative option to the Suez Canal following the blocking of the canal by the giant
46 IRAN Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com