21.08.2020 - 14:43 UTC
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned a United Arab Emirate-based firm and individual for acting as proxies for Mahan Air (W5, Tehran Mehrabad). The US regards the Iranian airline as a conduit for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an entity Washington has previously accused of being a terrorist organisation.
In a statement issued this week, OFAC said it had designated UAE-based Parthia Cargo and Delta Parts Supply FZC and its owner, Iranian national Amin Mahdavi, for their material support of Mahan Air.
It claimed that Dubai-based Parthia Cargo serves as a freight forwarding agent for Mahan Air and has regularly forwarded consignments of aircraft parts, including US-origin parts, from the UAE directly to Mahan Air in Tehran, as well as to Mahan Air front companies in Istanbul. Parts have typically been shipped aboard regularly scheduled Mahan Air flights between Dubai Int'l and Tehran Imam Khomeini, it claimed adding that several other Iranian airlines and aviation firms had also relied on Parthia Cargo for their US-origin...
23.07.2020 - 10:38 UTC
The Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Ministry has reimposed a ban on all flights to and from Iran and Afghanistan due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases in both countries, Reuters has reported.
The suspensions took effect on July 18, 2020, and are valid indefinitely.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module and Flightradar24 ADS-B data, Mahan Air (W5, Tehran Mehrabad) was the only airline operating scheduled flights between Tehran Imam Khomeini and Istanbul New prior to the suspension. All other flights between the two countries operated by Mahan Air or IranAir (IR, Tehran Mehrabad) had already been suspended earlier. Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul New) and Pegasus Airlines (PC, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen) planned to resume flights to Iran on August 1, although this is now unlikely.
In terms of traffic from Afghanistan, Kam Air (RQ, Kabul) operated services from Kabul to Istanbul and Ankara Esenboga, while Turkish Airlines resumed its services to Kabul on June 24, stopped them again in early July, and...