Iran plans to build 150-seat passenger plane

Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that Iran has designed a 150-seat passenger plane, which would be the country's largest built to date, the ministry's website reported.

"We have designed a medium size passenger plane which can carry between 100 and 150 passengers and we are cooperating with the civil aviation authority to build bigger planes," the website quoted Vahidi as saying on Sunday.

He did not offer details on when production would start.

Iran has already manufactured a twin-turboprop aircraft, the Iran-140, which is a licensed copy of the Ukrainian Antonov An-140.

It can carry 52 passengers, or six tonnes of cargo, has a medium-haul range of 2,100 kilometres (1,250 miles) and is being built with Ukrainian help.

Iran and Ukraine in the deal inked in the mid-1990s stipulated that 70 percent of Iran-140 components would be locally made and the rest supplied by Ukraine.

Iran had one of the best air safety records before the 1979 Islamic revolution, but it has suffered a number of major air accidents over the past decade, most involving Russian-made planes.

A Western embargo banning the sales of new planes and parts, together with growing demand for air travel from a burgeoning population, forced Iran to look to Russia and the ex-Soviet republics for planes and air crew.

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