Twenty of those planes have already joined the Iranian civil aviation fleet after undergoing various stages of technical examination, Mohammadi Bakhsh told IRNA on Monday.
Iran’s aviation industry, which remains under US sanctions, needs some 550 passenger planes to function properly, he pointed out.
However, he said a portion of the country's fleet of passenger aircraft has been grounded over the years due to aging and a lack of spare parts.
Mohammadi Bakhsh emphasized that his organization's priority to overcome the sanctions has been to try to return some of the grounded planes back to service.
"Sixteen planes have been grounded for more than 10 years, 68 planes for less than 10 years and 39 planes for 2 to 5 years," he noted.
He said Iran currently has 180 active planes, including a number of grounded aircraft that have been repaired and returned to the aviation fleet.
In the meantime, the CAO is working to purchase medium-range planes to keep smaller airlines afloat, Mohammadi Bakhsh added.
Following the nuclear deal of 2015, Iran had placed orders for purchases of 200 brand new passenger planes from Western suppliers, including from Airbus and Boeing. The contracts, however, were suspended in 2018 after the United States withdrew from the accord and restored sanctions on Iran.
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