TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Touraj Dehqani Zanganeh has said the country is planning to establish the production line for a 100-seat commercial passenger plane, Iran’s Civil Aviation Network News reported.

The mentioned production line will be established by CAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, according to Dehqani.

“We have planned to build 70- and 100-seat aircrafts inside the country, and [in this regard] we signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Defense to be able to use the country’s existing military capabilities for the construction of commercial aircrafts,” the official explained.

According to Dehqani Zanganeh, the mentioned MOU has been in fact a trilateral document signed among the Transport and Urban Development Ministry, the CAO, and the Defense Ministry for cooperation in the manufacturing of commercial aircrafts.

Another MOU will also be signed between the CAO and the country’s Advanced Aviation and Transportation Technology Development Headquarters in order to allow the two sides’ to use each other’s capabilities and capacities for realizing the construction of the airplanes, the official said.

Stating that the project for the production of the mentioned 100-seat aircraft is at the primary studies stage, the official said: “I recently visited the production center of these aircraft; significant progress has been achieved."

“There are a lot of knowledge-based companies established in the country that have great potentials; Mapna, and another company are currently building gas turbines, and we are helping them to build aircraft engines,” he further said.

Deehqani Zanganeh further noted that CAO is also pursuing a project for manufacturing flight simulators inside the country which would be constructed and installed in southern Kish Island.

Having the oldest airline in West Asia and second oldest in Asia, Iran started developing its aviation industry nearly 80 years ago and this industry is still improving in the country, however, despite its long history civil aviation industry in Iran has not been developed at a desirable pace.

After the re-imposition of the U.S. sanctions, most of the western companies like Boeing and Airbus which had signed deals with the Islamic Republic for providing the country with new planes left their contracts and so like many other areas, the Iranian aviation industry is taking serious measures to cut reliance on foreign sources to meet its needs.

EF/MA