Tehran: All foreign airlines working in Iran will from next week operate from a new but hitherto under-used airport outside the capital Tehran, officials said today.

Gholam Hossein Baqerian, the managing director of Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA), some 30 km south of Tehran, said foreign airlines would use the new airport from November 4.

Most foreign airlines have until now continued to use the city-centre Mehrabad airport even though IKIA, named after the Islamic republic's revolutionary leader, was ready for flights back in 2004.

Baqerian was quoted by the English language Iran Daily as saying that all Iranian airlines operating flights abroad were using IKIA from Sunday (October 28).

The ageing Mehrabad, which has only limited capacity, will now be used almost exclusively for domestic flights.

Officials from Air France, Austrian Airlines, British Midland and Lufthansa all confirmed that their flights would be leaving from IKIA as of November 4. "From November 4 all our flights will be leaving from IKIA," said a Lufthansa representative.

Iran had hoped international flights would move even sooner. But IKIA has had a turbulent history since its opening in 2004 as Iran's showpiece airport and a hub intended to rival Dubai.

When the airport first opened in May that year, the elite Revolutionary Guards moved into shut it down over their objection to the involvement of a Turkish-led consortium in the project.

The Guards said the consortium had business dealings with Iran's arch enemy Israel, making it a danger to national security. 

Source : PTI