First commercial flight lands at new Tehran airport

A commercial airliner landed at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) on Saturday, the first plane to do so since work began on the facility more than 30 years ago, and with its future still cloudy.
IKIA, located in the middle of the desert about 45 kilometers (about 25 miles) south-west of the capital, was designed to replace the congested and decrepit Mehrabad airport in the middle of Tehran.
Following its ceremonial inauguration by President Mohammad Khatami on February 1 - the 25th anniversary of the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile - IKIA was scheduled to start handling international flights at the end of March.
But a series of setbacks delayed the real opening until now.
A spokesman for Iran's civil aviation authority, Reza Jafarzadeh, said Saturday following the touchdown of an Emirates airlines flight that "all international flights should be arriving at AKIA with three to four months."
Officially the cause of the delay was a drastic rise in jet fuel prices, but other reasons were also rumoured. Civil Aviation advisor Jafar Poursadeqian had notably implied there was not enough co-operation among official bodies.
Press reports had said fuel prices, fixed by the government at 600 rials (seven US cents) a liter until last month, had been raised to 1,895 rials (22 cents) and could reach 2,100 rials (24 cents).
The reports said the increase was because the oil ministry had given the supply contract to a new company, but the aviation authorities had been unable to strike a deal on prices because of problems supplying the new airport.
Poursadeqian said the price rise would inflict heavy losses on airlines, and blamed the oil ministry for giving the contract to a private company for the first time.
To add to the woes, the country's two domestic airlines refused to use IKIA, saying the airport did not have the necessary facilities.
The authorities, insisting that the domestic companies will come round eventually, have promised to make amends and also to build a second terminal.
Iranian air transport is one of several areas of confrontation between those who advocate the privatisation of the economy and their opponents.
And getting the airlines into IKIA is only part of the problem. Passengers are also wary, simply because of the facility's location in the desert, on the highway to the holy city of Qom. Taxi and bus service has been laid on, but road travel is dangerous in Iran, with one of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the world.
But an airport official, Nasser Qanbar, said there is hope on the horizon, with 24 European and three Asian companies having responded to a tender to build a subway line from IKIA to the capital.