TEHRAN - Iran Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) has authorized 16 domestic companies for designing and manufacturing the aviation fleet’s required equipment and items, IRNA reported on Monday, quoting CAO head as saying.

Speaking in a press conference on the sidelines of the 4th Logistics, Transportation, and Related Industries Exhibition (IRAN TRANS EXPO 2019), Ali Abedzadeh said “according to the plan for countering the sanctions and for the development of the country’s aviation industry, the civil aviation authority has granted 16 companies licenses to design aircraft components over the past year.”

Abedzadeh further noted that since the re-imposition of the U.S. sanctions Iran has been denied access to aircraft parts and any information and data in this regard, so the country is taking necessary measures to meet its needs by relying on domestic capabilities.

By designing and manufacturing aircraft parts, the mentioned companies are trying to keep the aviation industry moving forward; they also operate in the field of aviation information, which is a major development for the country in the sanctions era, he said.

“Aircraft parts have been manufactured domestically for about a year, and the civil aviation organization has been supporting companies active in this field,” Abedzadeh added.

Back in July, Managing Director of Iran’s national airline (Iran Air) had said that the U.S. sanctions have not stopped Iran’s aviation industry’s continuous development.

According to Touraj Dehqani Zanganeh, since the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on the country all the technical checking and maintenance operations are being carried out by Iranian experts and the country is self-sufficient in this regard.

“Despite the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deals and re-imposition of the sanctions which ended Iran Air's cooperation with foreign partners, the Airline will go on providing its services and reaches new achievements,” Dehqani said.

On January 28, 2016, Iran Air signed a deal with the French giant plane maker Airbus for the purchase of 118 Airbus jets worth $27 billion and it also inked a deal with Boeing on December 11, 2016, to buy 80 aircrafts valued at $16.6 billion. It was Iran’s biggest deal with an American company since the 1979 revolution.

And in April 2017, Iran Air signed a contract to buy 20 planes from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR.

However, just a few of the ordered planes (three Airbuses and 13 ATRs) were delivered before Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions on Iran.

Now under the new U.S. sanctions, international plane manufacturers that use at least 10 percent U.S.-made parts in their products have decided to avoid the Iranian market.

EF/MA