Iran In Talks With US To Re-Launch Direct Flights

By Fatih Karimov

Iran is holding talks with the US to re-launch direct flights between the two countries, Abbas Akhoundi, the Iranian Minister of Road and Urban Development said.

Iran Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has started negotiations with the US on the issue, Akhoundi said, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported Jan. 24.

Referring to the negotiations on direct Iran-US flights, Farhad Parvaresh, Chairman and Managing Director of Iran Air, the Iranian flag carrier said that daily flights to New York used to take place before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and they will hopefully get resumed in near future.

Following the implementation of the nuclear deal in Jan. 16 Iran is now looking into the possibility of resuming direct flights to the United States in light of the removal of sanctions that have prohibited the country from doing so.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged at the 68th session of the UN general assembly in New York in 2013 to facilitate travel to homeland for Iranian expatriates residing in the US.

The US, and Los Angeles in particular, is home to hundreds of thousands of Iranian expatriates.

Travelers between Iran and the US currently have to change flights in a third country, usually in Europe or the Persian Gulf states.