Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Number of international transit flights passing over Iran's air zone has surpassed 1,700 per day, the head of the Iranian Airports Organization, Mohammad Ali Ilkhani said, official IRNA news agency reported Dec. 20.
Ilkhani said that Iran needs to update its flight data processing systems to navigate the flights over its air space.
"We have signed a contract with a European company on the issue to provide more secure monitoring and navigation services to all domestic and international flights," he added.
The number of international transit flights over Iran's air zone has sharply increased from mid-July following the Malaysian plane crash in Ukraine and security problems in Iraq.
The Islamic Republic has recently made 11 new air routes to meet the high demand of the passing flights.
In total, 164,057 flights passed Iran's air space during the first eight months of current Iranian fiscal year(March 21-Nov. 22), indicating an increase by 43 percent compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Currently, over 70 international airlines use Iran's air zone, according to the country's aviation officials.
Ilkhani also forecasted that Iranian airports' passenger traffic would increase by 10 percent by the end of current fiscal year (March 21, 2015).
About 48 million passengers are predicted to use Iran's domestic and international flights during the current fiscal year, about 5 million more year on year.
Over 32 million passengers used Iran's domestic and international flights during the first eight months of current Iranian fiscal year (March 21-Nov. 22), which indicates a 12-percent increase compared to same period of last year.
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