Shiraz International Airport is in talks with Austria to establish directs flights between the capital of southern Fars Province and Austria.
“We’re in talks with international airline companies that have recently established flights to Tehran,” Reza Badieifard, the airport’s CEO, was quoted as saying by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development’s news service.
“We are also in talks with two other international airlines,” he added, without elaborating.
Shiraz International Airport is the main international airport of Fars Province in southern Iran. In addition to domestic flights to most major Iranian cities, there are daily flights to major cities in the Middle East, including Dubai and Istanbul.
Early September, British Airways resumed direct flights to Tehran—the first UK carrier to fly to Iran in four years. Six return flights per week now operate between London’s Heathrow and Tehran, which BA described as “an important destination”.
KLM has also said it will resume service to Tehran from October 30. Tehran will be the 14th new destination the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands has added to its network in 2016. Four weekly services will be operated between Schiphol and Tehran, supplementing the Paris-Tehran service operated by Air France since April 16, 2016, after a seven-year hiatus.
As for Austria, the country’s national carrier Austrian Airlines started flying three times a week to the Iranian commercial center of Isfahan on September 4. The airline operates an Airbus A320 to the famous Iranian tourist hub located 4,200 kilometers from Vienna on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Austrian Airlines has expanded its existing portfolio of up to 14 weekly flights to Tehran by adding Isfahan, thus increasing its services to Iran to 17 flights each week.
Badieifard said Shiraz Airport plans to be the second-busiest airport in Iran, after Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport.
Shiraz Airport is implementing development projects, including expansion of the airport’s runway and apron, at a cost of over $9 million.