Iran says flights to Turkey could resume on June 20

A senior Iranian aviation official says flights to Turkey could resume next week after nearly three months of closure of borders over the new coronavirus pandemic.

According to Press TV, Secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines (AIA) said on Sunday that Iranian airlines could resume flights to Turkey if reports about a pending decision by Ankara on reopening its air borders with Iran were true.

“We have received some unofficial report about this (issue) that the air border of this neighboring country will reopen next Saturday (June 20) so that passenger flights could resume,” Maqsoud Asadi Samani was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Asadi said that reopening the flights routes to Turkey would be highly possible given recent negotiations conducted on the issue between the senior officials of the two countries.

He said Iran was in talks with other countries to finalize a reopening of flight routes now that the pandemic is slowing down.

Iran has had the highest number of cases for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, in West Asia and North Africa region.

The outbreak has already passed its peak in the country although health ministry officials said on Sunday that the daily number of deaths from the virus had exceeded 100 on Sunday, a first in two months.             

A total of 187,427 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Iran since the disease was spotted in the country in late February, according to figures released on Sunday. 

ME