"Tehran's new airport to stay closed until new order: director"

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Tehran's new airport to stay closed until new order: director 


TEHRAN, (AFP) - Tehran's new airport will remain closed until further
notice, its director said Wednesday, despite an apparent decision by the
army to lift its closure.

"On the order of the transport minister, as long as the reasons for
Saturday's event are not clarified, and the government has not given new
orders, the airport will remain closed," Imam Khomeini International
Airport's (IKIA) director Hossein Pirouzi was quoted as telling the student
news agency ISNA.

Troops shut the showpiece airport on Saturday after the first flight touched
down to inaugurate the facility and kept it closed Sunday, forcing aircraft
to be diverted to the old airport of Mehrabad.

The army opposed the awarding of a license to manage IKIA to Tepe-Akfen-Vie
(TAV), an Austrian-Turkish consortium, claiming it has business interests in
Israel and thus endangered the country's security.

The Iranian government had declared the closure illegal and threatened legal
action against "irresponsible officials."

The stand-off raised concerns the military was ignoring embattled reformist
President Mohammad Khatami's government, and that foreign investors would
think twice before investing in the Islamic Republic's economic development.

The airport had looked set to reopen on Tuesday after a senior military
official, General Ali Reza Afshar, said the army was ending its closure
after the government backed down and withdrew TAV's licence.

But Pirouzi said that was not entirely true.

"Until the time that TAV's contract situation and equipment are not
clarified, things will remain as they are," he said.

A senior airport official told AFP the airport would ideally need 10 days to
reopen once the decision had been taken.

But he said it was possible authorities would order it to re-start more
quickly, even if TAV employees were forced to leave.

"There are enough personnel, notably from Iran Air, to run it," he said.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************