TEHRAN - Iran’s ATA Airlines launched its first flight in route Tehran-Baku-Tabriz on June 16, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Thursday.

“Launching the flight of ATA Airlines in this route is an important development in the two countries’ relations,” IRNA quoted Iran’s Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Pakayeen as saying.

The ambassador noted that Tehran-Baku-Tabriz flights will help boosting trade and tourism relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.

“In the near future Baku-Mashhad and vice versa flights will also be launched by ATA Airlines” he said, explaining that the required license for this flight (Baku-Mashhad) has been issued and hopefully by the end of this Iranian calendar year (ends on 20 March 2017), the flights will be launched too.

Pakayeen stated that the flights are performed by Airbus aircraft which has the capacity of 145 people and the flights to both cities will be performed twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

The fleet of the Ata Airlines which was established in 2008 is comprised of 4 Airbus A320-200, 2 Boeing 737-400 and six McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircrafts. The company launched its scheduled operations in 2010 with the provision of services for domestic routes. Currently, the airline operates flights to a number of international destinations such as Tbilisi, Istanbul, Bahrain, Baghdad, and Kuwait.

EF/MA