Fully illustrated with over 140 images, this book tells the story of Iran s national carrier from its earliest years to the present day.
In August 1961, Iranian Airways and Persian Air Services merged to form United Iranian Airlines. A few months later, however, Iran National Airline Corporation was formed by order of the Iranian government, and the new airline took over operations from United Iranian Airlines. When the airline entered the jet age, a few Boeing 727s were leased, which operated on routes to most major cities in Europe as well as the Persian Gulf region. Later, Boeing 737s for domestic flights and Boeing 707s for semi-long-haul flights were purchased, followed by Boeing 747s and 747SPs for the non-stop Tehran-New York route. The Shah of Iran also ordered the French Concorde, an order which was cancelled immediately after the Revolution. As a result of the Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war, domestic and international passenger numbers went down. At the end of the war with Iraq, the Iranian government decided to end the monopoly status of Iran. Fully illustrated with over 140 images, this book tells the story of Iran's national carrier from its earliest years to the present day.
Jozef Mols was born in Antwerp on May 28, 1951. He studied applied economics with emphasis on marketing, consular sciences and economics of Third World Countries. At the end of his studies, he organized an expedition with 26 co-students (economics of the Third World Countries) to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Subsequently, he lived in the Persian Gulf as an analyst and visited Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman on assignment. Afterwards, he continued the same work but based in Paris and, subsequently, Rome. In 1987, he returned to Belgium to start teaching at several institutes for higher education. Upon this return in Belgium in 1997, he continued to teach. In 2002, he retired from education and started a full-time career as a writer and speaker. Jozef has had been writing magazine articles for over 40 years and has been published in numerous travel, lifestyle and aviation magazines, including Pilot Club, Airliner World, Airports of the World, Aviation News, Piloot en Vliegtuig and Ambassadeurs.