Mahan Air

Mahan Air was established in 1991 as a Full-Service Carrier (FSC), and began operations in June 1992 as Iran's first private airline. The name of Mahan is taken from the historical city of Mahan in Kerman Province. The Airline joined the IATA in 2001 and is owned by Mol-Al-Movahedin Charity Institute (100%).

Three Airbus A300B4 passenger aircraft were acquired in 1999, and in 2002 A310s and A320s joined the fleet. According to the British High Court, three 747-400s were unlawfully taken by Mahan Air from their real owner, Blue Sky Airlines, in 2008, using forged bills of sale. When ordered to bring the aircraft back to Europe, Mahan claimed it could not do so because it was being investigated by the Iranian authorities for fraud, and the aircraft had to be kept in Iran.[5] The fleet has gone through an extensive modernization since 2006 as Boeing 747-400s, Airbus A300-600s, Avro RJ-100s and Airbus A340-600s were gradually acquired to enable Mahan Air to provide additional capacity to its current destinations, as well as extending its reach to further destinations worldwide. The airline started operations from Tehran to Shanghai in 2011, Guangzhou in 2013 and Beijing in 2014.

The airline carried 5.4 million passengers in 2015 with an average load factor of 77%. In mid-2015 it had a fleet of 60 aircraft, making it the largest airline in Iran based on seat numbers and fleet size. It operates scheduled passenger services to international destinations in Europe, the Far East and the Middle East. Mahan Air has an extensive domestic route network too. The airline commenced Copenhagen and Paris services in the first half of 2016.

On 12 December 2011, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced the designation of Mahan Air as a material and transportation supporter of terrorism, "for providing financial, material and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). Based in Tehran, Mahan Air provides transportation, funds transfers and personnel travel services to the IRGC-QF." [6][7][8][9][10]

On 6 April 2016, Mahan Air was banned from flying over Saudi Arabian airspace.[11]

Between 2015 and 2018, Mahan Air significantly expand its operations and fleet. Mahan Air targets the transfer business between Asia, especially China, and European destinations. In 2016, besides Germany and Denmark, Mahan Air started service to Milan and Athens; and to Barcelona the following year. It operated up to 15 weekly flights to China until late 2018.

During the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, Mahan Air launched their its direct Caracas-Tehran route in April.[12]

In January 2019, the German government banned Mahan Air from landing in Germany, where it formerly served Munich Airport and Düsseldorf Airport, citing Mahan's involvement in Syria and security concerns.[13][14] France imposed the same ban on 25 March 2019, and Mahan Air was forced to cancel its 4-weekly service to Paris.[15]

On 1 November 2019, the Italian government also announced that the country would ban Mahan Air flights to the country from 15 December 2019. The move came after the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Rome, during which he urged Italian officials to stop allowing Iranian airlines to use Italy's airspace.[16] The remaining destinations within the European Union had been Barcelona and seasonally also Athens and Varna since then. However, in April 2020 the airline lost its traffic rights to Spain as well.[17]

In February and March, after Iran officially suspended all flights to and from China, Mahan Air continued flying to China and elsewhere.[18]

The airline lied about these flights taking place, according to an investigation by the BBC. Arrival and departure data from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini and Chinese airports shows flights continued into March.[19]

A Feb. 5 flight carried the remaining iraqi students from Wuhan to Baghdad while a Feb. 6 flight carried 70 Iranian students back from Wuhan to Tehran,

Mahan Air claimed it had ended all flights from China after an Iranian student newspaper criticized the February 6 flight. But data from commercial flight tracker Flightradar24 showed 55 more flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, lasting until Feb. 23 (by which time Iran had 43 confirmed COVID-19 cases). The BBC investigation established that Lebanon’s first COVID-19 cases originated on Mahan Air flights. Planes that went to Tehran from China also made onward travel within 24 hours to Barcelona, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul. From February 6 to March 31, a total of 37 Mahan Air flights went to Dubai, 19 flights went to Turkey, 12 went to Malaysia, 8 went to Syria, and 6 went to Thailand. Cabin crew raised concerns about their lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and containment measures on planes, but were silenced by the airline. Mahan Air claimed it was sending humanitarian aid to China and that none of the flights were passenger flights. The data shows that although six flights were used for aid, four others were used to evacuate Iranian citizens from China, and there were a total of 157 additional flights with China from February 6 to March 31.[19][20]

A former Mahan Air Airbus A320-200

Mahan Air has operated the following aircraft types:[27][28]