Tehran: The deputy head of the country’s airlines association has said that more than half of Iran’s civilian fleet is closed due to a lack of spare parts.
“The number of defunct aircraft in Iran has exceeded 170 … as a result of missing spare parts, especially motors,” Alireza Barkhor said in an interview with state news agency IRNA.
He said in an interview this week that the ban represented more than half of the civilian aircraft shortage in the affected country.
“If this trend continues, we will see more planes landing in the field in the near future,” Barkhor was quoted as saying.
“We expect that one of the priorities of the government will be to help finance airlines so that they are able to provide spare parts for the refurbishment of grounded aircraft,” he said.
According to the Iranian economic daily Financial Tribune, the national carrier IranAir currently operates a fleet of 39 aircraft, the majority of which are Airbus jets.
Iran’s economy is struggling under sanctions lifted after a landmark nuclear deal in 2015, but reimposed after the US withdrew in 2018.
In 2016, after the lifting of sanctions, Iran struck deals to buy 100 Airbus jets, 80 Boeing aircraft and 40 ATR aircraft.
But the Islamic Republic only received 11 planes because deliveries were interrupted after restrictions were reimposed, according to the daily.
Meanwhile, Iran has criticized new US sanctions on a dozen Iranian institutions and officials for “serious” human rights abuses.
Washington announced the sanctions late on Tuesday, taking tough measures against the Islamic republic.
They came just before talks on reviving the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers resumed in Vienna on Thursday, according to Iran’s chief negotiator.
“Even in the midst of the Vienna Talk, the US cannot stop imposing sanctions against Iran,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh tweeted.
“Washington fails to understand that ‘maximum failure’ and a diplomatic success are mutually exclusive,” he said.
“Doubling down on sanctions won’t benefit — and that’s anything but seriousness and goodwill.”
The new US measures target government officials and organizations involved in the suppression of protesters and political activists, and in prisons where activists have been held in brutal conditions.
Nuclear talks resumed in Vienna last week after a pause of several months but were halted on Friday.
Iran has sunk into the dry dock of the Bandar Abbas warship to return to Vienna for talks as Britain has warned it is a “last chance”.