Mahan Air structure

Mahan Air was established in 1992 as Iran’s first private airline. Its inaugural flight was a domestic service between Tehran and Kerman, where the company was originally headquartered. The airline’s first international flight was to Damascus in Syria in 1994.

Mahan Air is owned by a charity called Mol-al-Movahedin that is based in the southern desert province of Kerman, about 1,076 kilometres south of the capital Tehran. It is rumoured that former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is the actual owner Mahan Air.

Today, the carrier operates out of Imam Khomeini International airport in Tehran, but it still has a training centre in Kerman where Mahan Air’s pilots are trained.

In 2009, the airline recorded profits of just under $1m.

Mahan Air operations

Mahan Air currently has a fleet of 32 aircraft, which are mostly Boeing, Airbus and BAE planes. Over the past four years, the carrier has been adding about five new aircraft a year to its fleet. Due to trade sanctions, the planes are bought second-hand, mainly from Gulf airlines.

 In 2009, the airline carried more than 2.6 million passengers. In the first six months of this year, passenger numbers totalled 1,637,000. The majority of Mahan Air’s customers are Iranian and its routes are split equally between domestic and international destinations. 

The airline is expanding its network: flights to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia commenced in February this year and services to Almaty in Kazakhstan were launched in June. Mahan Air currently flies to 28 destinations in 12 countries. In Europe, it services Dusseldorf, Birmingham, Varna and Larnaca. The carrier has a 13 per cent market share of all international flights from Iran and an 8 per cent share of the domestic market.

In 2007, Mahan Air was placed on a blacklist by the European Commission, banning the airline from flying to EU countries due to safety concerns. It was the only Middle Eastern airline on the list. The ban was lifted in 2008 after Mahan Air installed collision-avoidance systems on its aircraft.

Mahan Air ambitions

Mahan Air has identified Europe and Asia as key markets for future growth. In line with this, the company aims to begin flights to Shanghai in early 2011 - it will be the airline’s first destination in China. The carrier also plans to start flights to Milan as soon as it receives approval and is looking at developing its presence in eastern Europe, with flights to Romania and the Czech Republic in 2011.

Domestically, the airline intends to launch six new routes including flights to the cities of Sirjan, Zabol and Khorramabad.

As far as the fleet is concerned, Mahan Air is targeting to have 50 aircraft in the next five years to support the expansion of its routes. The planes will be predominantly Airbus and BAE regional jets.

Mahan Air expects to carry about 3.4 million passengers in 2010 and hopes to boost this to 8 million passengers by 2015 by increasing the frequency on its existing routes and launching new destinations.

The expansion plans of Mahan Air will benefit from the Iranian government’s plans to upgrade and expand the country’s aviation infrastructure. It is estimated that Iran has about 98 commercial airports with the majority being small domestic airports. Plans are under way to renovate and expand existing airports at Ahvaz, Tabriz, Esfahan, Mashhad as well as to expand Imam Khomeini International airport.

The project will initially increase the total capacity at Imam Khomeini International to 20 million passengers a year.

The airport can currently handle 6.5 million passengers a year. The masterplan involves three or four phases of construction with the final capacity at the airport set to be 90 million passengers a year. The International Civil Aviation Organization still needs to secure the financing and then physically build the expansion of the airport. Bearing this in mind, the project is unlikely to be finished within the next decade. Iran has more than 20 private and public airlines in operation, despite this Mahan Air says it is not seeking a merger.