Iranian Airlines Owe 5 Trillion Tomans

Ali Abedzadeh, the head of the Civil Aviation Organization, stated on Thursday, December 3rd, that "airlines are in very bad conditions and in addition to accumulated losses, they owe 5 trillion tomans." He added that due to this situation, an increase in ticket prices will be implemented starting next week. At the same time, some members of parliament have opposed the increase in flight prices amid economic recession. According to Iranian news agencies, Ali Abedzadeh participated in a discussion on Iranian television regarding the liberalization of airline ticket prices. A few days earlier, Ali Akhundi, Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development, announced that based on a resolution from the Supreme Aviation Council, ticket prices on 170 busy domestic routes were liberalized starting December 1st. The price of tickets has increased 200 times since the revolution, while the costs of air transport have risen by 700 to 800 percent, calculated from a dollar rate of 7 tomans to the current rate of 3500 tomans. The Iranian government was mandated by the Fifth Development Plan to liberalize air transport rates starting from 2013, and Iranian airlines have repeatedly called for the liberalization or increase of ticket prices due to the rising dollar, the elimination of subsidies, and the impact of sanctions on this industry. The head of the Civil Aviation Organization stated that with full price liberalization, the authority to set ticket prices will be transferred to the airlines, but there will be complete oversight of these companies and their flights. He also announced that the number of active aircraft in Iran's aviation fleet is 250, valued at nearly one billion dollars, while purchasing five Boeing 777 aircraft requires an investment of one billion dollars, and airlines should be encouraged to enter this field. "Airlines do not receive subsidies," he stated. In the Thursday night program, in addition to the head of the Civil Aviation Organization, Asad Samani, the secretary of the Association of Air Transport Companies, and Mohammad Mohsen Karami, the head of the Association of Travel Service Offices, defended price liberalization, stating that if prices are not liberalized, the problems of this industry will not be resolved. Asad Samani mentioned that airlines do not receive subsidies and have not used resources from the National Development Fund. Mohammad Mohsen Karami emphasized that "liberalizing prices does not mean increasing prices, but rather it leads to transparency in flight prices and their announcement on specified routes on websites." However, two members of parliament, Jafar Qadari, a member of the Planning and Budget Commission, and Moyid Hossein Sadr, a member of the Industry and Mines Commission, opposed the increase in ticket prices and threatened that if implemented, the parliament would amend the resolution on the liberalization of flight rates. The increase in airline ticket prices has always been a controversial issue over the past 20 years. Critics believe that price increases will prevent low-income individuals, especially in provinces far from Tehran and impoverished areas of Iran, from using airplanes.