Iran Air’s success before 1979

1. Iran Air hostess offering food on flight

Iran Air, the national airline of our nation, was once seen as the world’s most promising and uprising airlines. Before 1979, Tehran in particular was labelled as a crossover for the rest of the world. A central area for one part of the world to reach the other. Geographically, Tehran was primed to be the hub for those from the east, travelling to the west and vice versa. Iran Air’s business model would have been built around that. Not only dealing with numerous domestic flights, but handling a number of international flights to different continents all across the globe. It was in 1971 when Iran Air made its first historic flight to New York using London as a stopover, however, shorty after, Iran Air upgraded the route to make it a direct flight. While doing this, Iran Air set a new world record flight time for this distance, at 12 hours and 15 minutes. The airline was booming and by the end of the 1970s, Iran Air was flying to over 30 international destinations. It was ranked only 2nd to Qantas as the world’s safest airline. Following the revolution, sanctions made it very difficult for Iran Air to compete like it once could, but we take a look at the pre-1979 photos and remember a beautiful time for our National Airline.

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