is the national and international
Airline of
Iran , based in
Tehran . Its acronym is Homa (هما in
Persian ), formed from the initial letters of the name in Persian, هواپیمایی ملی ایران''Havapeyma'i-ye Melli-ye Iran''. It operates services to 20 scheduled and 5 charter destinations. Its main base is
Mehrabad International Airport , Tehran.
Iran Air was established on
February 24 ,
1962 , after Iranian Airways and Persian Air Services joined together under the name of Iran National Airlines Corporation, known as Iran Air. Iranian Airways had been the first Iranian flag carrier and was formed in
1946 . Iran Air soon built a large route structure and a dense domestic network. The first planes used by the company were the
Avro York ,
Douglas DC-3 ,
Douglas DC-6 and
Vickers Viscount . The carrier became a full member of
IATA in 1964.
In
1965 , the company received its first jet plane,
Boeing 727-100 , followed by
Boeing 737-200 in 1971, the stretched
Boeing 727-200 in 1974, and three variants of
Boeing 747 (-100, -200, and the venerable SP) starting in 1975. By mid 70's, Iran Air was serving many major European cities with direct and a few one-stop (mainly with 727 aircraft) flights, and aggressive expansion was now on the agenda of company's management. The prestigious and much-desired route to
New York was first opened with
Boeing 707 aircraft with a stopover at
London Heathrow , but that service was later augumented and eventually replaced by direct flights operated with
Boeing 747SP , (inaugural flight on May 29, 1975), enabling Iran Air to offer direct service from
Tehran to
New York and allowing the carrier to operate the longest-range non-stop scheduled commercial service in the world at the time, a remarkable feat preceding any other carrier in the region (e.g. Emirates Airlines of
United Arab Emirates ) by more than 29 years.
On Oct. 8,
1972 , Iran Air placed an order with
British Aircraft Corporation (manufacturing partner of
Aerospatiale ) for 2
Concorde supersonic jets plus 1 option. These orders, however, were cancelled in April
1980 (after the
Islamic Revolution ), making Iran Air the very last "foreign" airline to cancel its Concorde orders, leaving
British Airways and
Air France as the only future Concorde operators. In
1978 , the airline bought six
Airbus A300 -B4 aircraft to be used on its domestic and regional routes. By the end of that year, Iran Air was serving thirty-one international destinations stretching from New York to Beijing (known then as Peking) and Tokyo, and was planning future direct services to Los Angeles and Australia using its long range 747SP and its strategic geographical hub in Tehran, a midway point between East and West. In fact, Iran Air was one of the pioneers in the Middle East in attracting connecting passengers and was already alluring many European travelers with its great service, impeccable safety record, and convenient connections to the Middle and Far East destinations.
By the late 1970's, Iran Air was the fastest growing airline in the world and one of the most profitable. Throughout these times of expansion, Iran Air’s management paid special attention to the safety of operations and made significant efforts to keep the company’s outstanding safety record immaculate. By 1976, Iran Air was ranked second only to
Qantas as the world’s safest airline that had been accident free for at least 10 years (although both airlines were accident free, Iran Air came second only because of fewer operational hours flown compared to Qantas). Prior to this ranking, Iran Air’s last fatal accident occurred 24 years earlier on December 25, 1952, in which 27 of the 29 passengers onboard perished when their
Douglas DC-3 crashed on landing.
With the
Islamic Revolution of
1979 , Iran Air had to halt its services to
New York , as a consequence of the embargo imposed by the
United States . Because of that, the Boeing 747SPs began to be used heavily on the airline's
Europe an and
Asian routes. During the 1990's, Iran Air was able to buy
Fokker F100s , but, again because of the embargo, this was the only type that joined the fleet during the '90s. In
2001 the airline bought six second-hand
Airbus A310 aircraft (five -200 and one -300), when the United States blocked its purchase of new
Airbus A330 aircraft. In 2005, the carrier bought another 2 ex-
Olympic Airlines Airbus A300-600 's.
The airline is wholly owned by the Government of Iran and employs 8,887 staff.
- On 3 July , 1988 , Iran Air Flight 655 was over the Persian Gulf on its way to the Dubai from Bandar Abbas . The plane flew near the ship '' USS Vincennes '', a U.S. Navy cruiser equipped with the most sophisticated radar and electronic battle gear. They claimed that the ship mistook the airliner for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat . When the aircrew failed to respond to a message, the cruiser shot the airliner down with a missile. All 16 crew and 274 passengers were killed. The United States called the incident a tragic mistake. Newsweek published a long article ( “Sea of Lies”, July 13 , 1992 ) that largely blamed Capt. Will Rogers, the Vincennes' commander. See Iran Air Flight 655 .
Iran operates the following services (at January
2005 ):
- Domestic scheduled destinations: Ahwaz , Ardabil , Bandar Abbas , Bandar Lengeh , Bushehr , Chahbahar , Qeshm , Isfahan , Kerman , Kermanshah , Kish , Mashhad , Rasht , Sari , Shahre-Kord , Shiraz , Tabriz , Tehran , Urmia , Yazd and Zahedan .
- International scheduled services: Almaty , Amsterdam , Bahrain , Baku , Beijing , Beirut , Cologne , Copenhagen , Damascus , Dhaka , Doha , Dubai , Frankfurt , Geneva , Gothenburg , Hamburg , Istanbul , Jeddah , Karachi , Kuala Lumpur , Kuwait , London , Madrid , Milan , Moscow , Mumbai , Paris , Rome , Seoul , Sharjah , Stockholm , Tashkent , Tokyo and Vienna .
''See also
Timetables ''
The Iran Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (at December 2005):
Iran Air is in the process of retiring their 747SP, 747-100B and 747-200B. The 737s and 707s have been already retired in mid 90's.
Regional Iran Air websites:
Historical reviews:
For a complete history of the airline see:
