TEHRAN (Press TV) - Iran has reported a 150% increase in air passenger figures for April compared to the similar month last year as demand for travel rebounds from a hit suffered in early months of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The report showed that the number of passengers processed in 52 Iranian airports in the calendar month to April 20 had reached a total of over 1.92 million, up from over 0.767 million reported in the same period in 2020.
Air freight also surged to nearly 20,000 metric tons from over 6,600 tons in April last year, an increase of more than three folds.
Flight traffic surged by 33% in Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, the largest domestic airport in Iran, said the report, adding that airports in Mashhad in east and Kish in south of the country had also reported around 10% increase in the number of flights processed in the month to late April.
Transit flights through Iran were up by over 120% year on year, said the report which put the number of flights that used the Iranian airspace over the mentioned period at 11,426.
There was no clear mention of international flights although major airlines have reported increased activity in recent weeks in major routes linking Iranian airports to busy destinations in the Middle East and in Europe.
Iran’s aviation industry suffered a major hit when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in the country in early 2020 as demand for air travel plummeted to historic lows as a result of government restrictions on movement.
However, the sector has recorded some of the lowest number of layoffs of aviation staff in the world because of the pandemic as the government has offered loans and grants to airlines to enable them to recover from the hit.