Air India Express to launch flight services to Tehran

Air India Express (AIE) plans to roll out its flight service to Iranian capital Tehran from here, starting next summers
Most of the issues pertaining to the launch have been sorted out and the airline is now in the process of finalising a General Sales Agent (GSA) and cargo handling firm for this purpose, Air India Express Chief Executive Officer K Shyamsunder said here.
"We are hopeful of getting things done (the launch of flight) around summers," he said.
Shyamsunder said that though he was expecting the new flight to commence from March-April next year.
The proposed flight would be operated three times a week, he said adding that his airline may also enter into a code share pact with Air India for its proposed Tehran flight to facilitate a seamless travel to Iranian passengers bound for destinations such as Goa.

Code sharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless transport to destinations where it has no presence.

The Kochi-headquartered airline at present operates 475 services per week to 13 international airports across the Gulf and South-east Asia. As many as 236 of the 435 services of AIE are operated to and from Kerala.
AIE has a fleet of 22 Boeing 737 planes with 17 of them owned and rest five on lease
At the same time, AIE parent Air India is likely to write to Exim Bank of US soon, informing the bank of its decision to operate the Tehran flight. Air India planes are financed through a loan from Exim Bank and this is required as Iran was under global sanctions till recently.