Civil aviation faces $187.5m war losses after US-Israeli attacks
Seven Iranian airports were targeted during the 40-day US-Israeli military conflict that began on February 28, with attacks focusing more on tourism, passenger and cargo infrastructure than on military facilities, according to Iranian media reports.
Based on estimates and a report published in The Wall Street Journal, Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, as well as airports in Tabriz, Kashan, Urmia, Khorramabad, and the Bahram and Azmayesh facilities in Tehran, were repeatedly targeted by air strikes and bombings during the conflict. The attacks damaged infrastructure including runways, air traffic control towers and hangars, while dozens of Iranian passenger aircraft used for tourism and travel were either completely destroyed or removed from flight operations due to shrapnel hits and collateral damage.
Iran's Civil Aviation Organization is still compiling assessments of damages to airports and aircraft stationed at them. However, based on some published reports, the number of passenger aircraft damaged or destroyed during the war is estimated to exceed that of military aircraft.
While unofficial reports indicate the complete destruction of about 20 passenger aircraft in the country and damage to another 40 passenger planes - which constitute important infrastructure for the country's tourism industry.
Based on ILNA's inquiries, Mahan Air has so far sustained the most damage from the destruction of passenger aircraft, and following this airline, which provided services to hundreds of domestic and international passenger routes, Iran Air and Zagros Airlines are also on the list of those most affected by the imposed Ramadan war against Iran.
Inquiries by ILNA from some aviation industry activists and the country's airline offices revealed that the largest wave of attacks has been directed at Iranian passenger aircraft.
Maqsoud Asadi Samani, secretary of Iran's Airlines Association, told ILNA, "The damages incurred include opportunity costs for airlines given that we were in the Nowruz holidays (begin on March 20), as well as damages to aircraft and subsequently damages that have been inflicted on the country's airports."
He stated that estimates of opportunity cost losses for travel companies that had planned to transport Nowruz passengers exceed 700 billion tomans ($4.375 million) per day, and even if we do not account for the Nowruz travel situation, the damages inflicted on the country's airline offices in total during the 40 days of imposed war against Iran amount to about 30 trillion tomans ($187.5 million).
He stated that the figure only includes the opportunity costs for airlines from losing Nowruz passengers and missing flights, otherwise, when accounting for damages inflicted on the chain of service companies to airlines such as handling companies and aircraft repair and maintenance providers, the amount of damage inflicted on the air infrastructure of the country's tourism industry from these companies' opportunity costs is much higher than this figure.
"140 aircraft had been prepared for passenger transport during Nowruz, with each aircraft on average capable of conducting 6 flights per day, and each flight transporting 120 passengers,” Samani announced. “The loss of this capacity, considering ticket prices, caused significant losses to airlines and the tourism services supply chain in ticket sales and more.”