A member of parliament says since almost half of Iran’s airplanes are out of commission, Iran needs to buy at least 100 new airplanes for air travel.

Shadmehr Kazemzadeh, chairman of the transportation committee said in an interview that “a large portion of our airplanes are practically unusable.”

According to this MP, the data shows that “out of almost 260 airplanes owned by the airlines, only around 150 are active, and almost 50 percent are out of commission.”

Due to U.S sanctions on Iranian airlines after the 1979 revolution, Iran still relies on old planes bought before the revolution.

After the Iran deal, Airbus and Boeing were allowed to sell planes and spare parts to Iran and two contracts were signed between Iran and the two giants, but after the United States left the JCPOA, both contracts were nullified.

Kazemzadeh stated that the 13 new A.R.T planes that were bought are not enough to respond to this demand. He added that the public sector is not capable of buying and importing new planes and the private sector needs to get involved and “buy planes by any measures possible”.

Due to sanctions by the U.S and some European countries, Iranian airlines are not allowed to travel to many countries in the world.

The high cost of travel and upkeep and fuel are also adding to the crisis that airlines are facing.