Iranian Official: Home-Made Passenger Planes to Join Iran’s Air Fleet

Head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Hamid Reza Pahlevani announced that a number of home-made passenger planes, capable of carrying 80, 100 and 150 passengers, will join the country’s air fleet.

The Islamic Republic of Iran plans to manufacture three domestically-designed passenger planes by 2026, Pahlevani said on Tuesday.

Iran aims to fly its first Antonov-158 jointly built with the Ukrainian company as early as 2013.

The new air vehicle with a seating capacity of 100 passengers will be the next generation of Iran-140 airplane.

After purchasing the production license for the Antonov-140 from Ukraine in 2000, Iran built its first Iran-140 passenger plane in 2003.

The first IRAN-140 aircraft was introduced by Iran in 2003. Five domestically-manufactured IRAN-140 planes were completed in October 2008 to increase the country’s transportation capacity and upgrade the Iranian passenger fleet.

The IRAN-140 is a double-engine turboprop aircraft which can fly almost 1,865 miles before re-fuelling and its passenger model seats 52 people.