Iran Air began its first passenger flight, just after the World War II, from Tehran to holy city of Mashhad. Another private airline "Pars Airways" was set up, which undertook cargo services to Europe, in 1954. In 1961, Iranian government decided to launch a national airline of Iran. On February 24, 1961, both "Iranian Airways" and "Pars Airways" merged to form a new airline called "Iranb Air", with the acronyms and the symbol of "Homa" bird. This new airline began its activities in April 1962.
Iran Air Fleet:
With the help of new generation Russian aircrafts, Iran Air is planning to revise its fleet as well as the fleet of its subsidiary - Iran Air Tours. The airline is scheduling to purchase five Tupolev Tu-204-100s for Iran Air Tours, while it would take two Ilyushin Il-96-300s on lease from Russia’s KrasAir, for a short period. At present, Iran Air consists of 54 aircrafts in its fleet. These include MD-82, Fokker 100, Boeing 747SP, Boeing 747-200C, Boeing 747-200B Combi, Boeing 747-100B, Boeing 727-200, Airbus A320-200, Airbus A310-300, Airbus A310-200, Airbus A300-600, Airbus A300-B4F, Airbus A300B4 and Airbus A300B2.
Iran Air Destinations:
At present, Iran Air connects to several destinations in different parts of the world. Uzbekistan (Central Asia), China, Japan and South Korea (East Asia), India (to Mumbai) and Pakistan (South Asia), Malaysia, Thailand (Southeast Asia), Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Dubai (Southwest Asia) are the Asian countries, to which the airline plies planned flights. In Europe, the airline flies to Austria, Azerbaijan, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. Apart from plying regular flights, the airline operates chartered flights from the cities of Iran to Jeddah, during the Hajj and Umrah seasons. The airline no ore offers flights to Africa, North America (United States) and South America (Venezuela).
Subsidiaries
Iran Air Cargo is a subsidiary of Iran Air. At first, Iran Air had a single Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft, which was grounded after sometime. However, the airline continued to operate its cargo service by purchasing two Airbus A300B4F aircraft in May 2008. Iran Air also has an economical airline named Iran Air Tours, which started its planned operations in 1990.
