Page 14 - IRANRptOct22

INSTC connects the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, allowing European goods to transit east from the EU’s southern ports in Italy and Greece and from the Black Sea ports of Bulgaria and Romania. Trade flows can go via Turkey and Georgia to Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea Port of Baku before moving south through Iran to markets in East Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and India, among other destinations.
At present, the Iranian sections of INSTC are multi-modal road-rail connections, but rail construction is continuing, with officials saying it should be fully completed next year.
“This is having a significant impact in how Iran is now being seen as a vital link between Europe and Asia. To help speed up delivery times, Iran’s international cargo transportation through its airports increased by 128 percent, in the first month of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21 through April 20, 2022), according to statistics of the Iranian Airports and Air Navigation Company,” added Silk Road Briefing.
Some 4,100 tonnes of cargo were transported internationally through Iranian airports in that month compared to 1,800 tonnes in the same month last year. That increase was also reflected in passenger traffic. International passenger transits through Iranian airports climbed fourfold to 202,000 for the same period versus 48,700 a year earlier.
Iran’s airports are undergoing significant upgrades. Both Chinese and Russian contractors have been retained to develop 116 Iranian airports in stages over the next two decades.
14 IRAN Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com