About 50% of airport capacity remains idle

Tehran, Dec 14, IRNA – Managing Director of Iran Airports Company Mohammad Ali Ilkhani said here on Sunday that about 50% of the capacity of the country’s airports remains unused adding that increase in the number of airports will not be economical. Speaking to IRNA he said currently out of 70 airports in the country 54 are active, four airports are under construction and 12 airports belong to institutions and organizations but also render services to passengers. He said at present the arrival-departure capacity of the airports stands at over 80 million passengers per year while last year only 43 million passengers arrived in and departed from the country’s airports. Ilkhani noted that the number of airports in the country is sufficient now but the Airports Company is seeking to render proper services to air passengers and for this reason has put purchase of flight required equipment on its agenda and a contract has been concluded with a foreign company for upgrading airport services. Underlining the need for protection of sustainable safety in aviation industry, he said the management of air routes is in need of accurate planning and for improving flight safety on air routes negotiations are being held with a European company so that through data processing flight safety will be further boosted. He also underlined the need for making investment in the second phase of Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) and said currently a conglomerate of investment companies has announced readiness for the completion of the second phase of the airport. Ilkhani further noted that given different projects for the second phase of Imam Khomeini International Airport the required investment is estimated at about 30 thousand billion rials./end