The director of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization (IRI.CAO), Ali Abedzadeh, has confirmed that ten start-up carriers have been given in-principal approval to begin their respective pushes towards full certification and launching.
Speaking to the Mehr news agency last week, Abedzadeh said the prospective carriers have six months, extendable to a year, to design, complete, and implement their organizational structures.
"At the moment, investors from these ten new airlines are buying airplanes," he said. "We hope that some of these companies will start operating within the next six months."
Though he did not specify their names, Abedzadeh confirmed they would target a spectrum of services ranging from scheduled domestic and regional, to international flights as well as charters.
According to the ch-aviation airline database, Iran has sixteen active scheduled passenger carriers, four charter operators, and four dedicated cargo carriers. There are currently four known scheduled start-ups namely Fly Qeshm, Jam Airlines, Nasim Air, and Tehran Airlines.
