Mahan Air

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Mahan Air
IATA
W5
ICAO
IRM
Callsign
MAHAN AIR
Founded 1993 in Kerman, Iran
Hubs Imam Khomeini International Airport
Secondary hubs Mehrabad International Airport
Bandar Abbas International Airport
Fleet size 20 (+3 orders)
Destinations 28
Parent company Mol-Al-Movahedin Credit Union
Headquarters Tehran, Iran
Key people
Website: http://www.mahan.aero

Mahan Air (Persian: هواپیمایی ماهان) is a private airline based in Tehran, Iran. It operates scheduled domestic services and international flights to the Far East, and the Middle East. Its main base is Imam Khomeini International Airport, Tehran.

The airline is on the List of air carriers banned in the European Union.

Contents

[edit] History

The airline was established in 1991 and began operations in 1992 as Iran's first private airline. It joined the IATA in 2001 and is owned by Mol-Al-Movahedin Organisation (96%). It has 1,616 employees (as of March 2007). At its operational launch in May 1993, Mahan Air had a fleet comprising two Tupolev 154 aircraft, a staff of 99 and a route network from Tehran to 2 domestic destinations. Real Mahan Air growth was initiated with the addition of Airbus A300 wide-body aircraft to the fleet in 1999 and the Airbus A310 in 2001.[1] This enabled the airline to reach beyond regional destinations it served at that time. Currently, its route network spans 28 destinations in 12 countries and it has a fleet of 11 all Airbus aircraft. It currently hold 13% of all international flights from Iran[2], and 8% of the domestic market[3].

[edit] Destinations

Mahan Air serves the following as of June 2008:

[edit] Fleet

Due to the sanctions imposed by the US government, Iranian airliners can only acquire airplanes which are at least seven years old and have been purchased through a third party rather than directly from Boeing or Airbus. As a result, eight Mahan aircraft have Armenian registration and are operated by Blue Airways. The Mahan Air fleet includes the following aircraft (as of May 2008):[citation needed]

Mahan Air Fleet
Aircraft Total Average Age Registration
Airbus A300-B4 4 27 EP-MHE(Stored at Kerman), EP-MHF, EP-MHG, EP-MHL
Airbus A300-B2K 3 27 EP-MHA(ex.reg:EK-30060), EP-MHP(ex.reg:EK-30044), EP-MHM(ex.reg:TC-SGA)
Airbus A310-300 4 16.4 F-OJHH, F-OJHI, EP-MHO(ex.reg:EK-31088), EX-301
Airbus A320-232 3 10.6 EP-MHK, EP-MHJ(Stored at Tehran), EP-MHN(ex.reg:EK-32075)
Boeing 747-300 2 21 EK-74713, EK-74780
Boeing 747-400 3 18 EK-74763, EK-74779, EK-74783
Tupolev Tu-204 (3 on order) 0 ?
Total 21 17,2
  • Country Code Registration: EP- (Iran), EK- (Armenia), EX- (Kyrghyzstan), F- (France). The Boeing 747-400's have now rolled into service but not been publicly sighted in Mahan Air colors and they come in original blue sky colors. This action has been highley criticised by Airport officials and the IATA demands Mahan Air to paint the airplanes in their own colours.[citation needed] Although this is not the case for The Boeing 747-300's as they have been sighted in Mahan air green colors [1]

[edit] Safety concerns

  • On 11 September 2007, the European Commission added Mahan Air to the list of airlines banned within the EU. [4] The ban is subject to certain limitations; for example, Mahan Air may operate aircraft wet-leased from other carriers provided those aircraft meet EU regulations.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Arabian Business
  2. ^ Arabian Business
  3. ^ Arabian Business
  4. ^ EC Press release about the ban of the airline from European airports

[edit] External links