- published: 04 Apr 2012
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Iran Air (Persian: ایران ایر), formally Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: هواپیمائی جمهوری اسلامی ایران Havapeyma'i-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān) is the flag carrier airline of Iran, operating services to 60 destinations, 35 international and 25 domestic. The cargo fleet operates services to 20 scheduled and 5 charter destinations. Its main bases are the Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport for international flights and Tehran Mehrabad Airport for domestic flights . It is headquartered on the grounds of Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.
Its acronym, Homa (Persian: هما), is derived from two sources: the initial letters of Iran Air's pre-Revolutionary Persian name, Havapeyma'i-ye Melli-ye Iran (Persian: هواپیمایی ملی ایران); and from Homa, a griffin of Persian mythology.
Recent news reports by Press TV claim that the Iranian government plans to privatize Iran Air with its subsidiary carrier Iran Air Tours along with the Homa Hotel Group.[citation needed]
In 1946, a group of businessmen founded Iran's first flag carrier under the name of Iranian Airways. Operations covered domestic and regional passenger and freight services plus a weekly freight service to Europe. The fleet consisted of Douglas DC-3s initially, supplemented by Douglas DC-4 and Vickers Viscount aircraft, later on. In 1954, the privately owned airline Persian Air Services (PAS) was established, which initially operated only freight services, followed by passenger operations between Tehran and other major cities in Iran. In 1960, PAS initiated service to several European destinations, including Geneva, Paris, Brussels and London, using Douglas DC-7C aircraft, leased from Sabena.
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (i/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.