Mahan Air

Early developments

Mahan Air was established in 1991 as a Full-Service Carrier (FSC) and began operations in June 1992 as Iran's first private airline. The name of Mahan is taken from the city of Mahan in Kerman Province. The airline is wholly owned by the Mol-Al-Movahedin Charity Institute.

Three Airbus A300B4 passenger aircraft were acquired in 1999, and A310s and A320s joined the fleet in 2002. According to the British High Court, three Boeing 747-400s were unlawfully taken by Mahan Air from their real owner, Blue Sky Airlines, in 2008, using forged bills of sale. When ordered to bring the aircraft back to Europe, Mahan claimed it could not do so because it was being investigated by the Iranian authorities for fraud, and the aircraft had to be kept in Iran.

Since 2006 Boeing 747-400s, Airbus A300-600s, Avro RJ-100s, and Airbus A340-600s were gradually acquired.

The airline carried 5.4 million passengers in 2015 with an average load factor of 77%. In mid-2015, it had a fleet of 60 aircraft. It operates scheduled passenger services to international destinations in Europe, the Far East,and the Middle East. Mahan Air has a domestic route network.

Following the implementation of the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2015, the company signed deals with Boeing, Airbus, and other Western companies to buy over 100 planes. However following Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018, the United States revoked Mahan Air's trade licenses.

The airline is affiliated with the Iranian Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security. Mahan Air was sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury in 2011; in 2020, two United Arab Emirates based companies were also sanctioned for supplying parts and services to Mahan Air.

Developments since 2011

On 12 December 2011, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced the designation of Mahan Air as a material and transportation supporter of terrorism, "for providing financial, material and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF). Based in Tehran, Mahan Air provides transportation, funds transfers, and personnel travel services to the IRGC-QF."

On 6 April 2016, Mahan Air was banned from flying over Saudi Arabian airspace.

In 2016, besides Germany and Denmark, Mahan Air started service to Milan and Athens, and to Barcelona the following year. It operated up to 15 weekly flights to China until late 2018.

During the Venezuelan presidential crisis, Mahan Air launched their direct Caracas-Tehran route in April 2019. In January 2019, the German government banned Mahan Air from landing in Germany, where it had formerly served Munich Airport and Düsseldorf Airport, citing Mahan's involvement in Syria and security concerns. France imposed the same ban on 25 March 2019, and Mahan Air was forced to cancel its 4-weekly service to Paris. On 1 November 2019, the Italian government also announced that it would ban Mahan Air flights to the country from 15 December 2019. The move came after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Rome, during which he urged Italian officials to stop allowing Iranian airlines to use Italy's airspace. The remaining destinations within the European Union had been Barcelona and seasonally also Athens and Varna since then. However, in April 2020, the airline lost its traffic rights to Spain as well.

According to the BBC, after Iran officially suspended all flights to and from China in 2020, Mahan Air continued flying to China and elsewhere in February and March of that year. The data show that although six flights were used for aid, four others were used to evacuate Iranian citizens from China, and there were a total of 157 additional flights with China from 6 February 2020 to 31 March 2020. Mahan Air was widely blamed for spreading the Covid-19 virus in Iran.

In October 2024, the European Union imposed sanctions on Mahan Air for supplying missiles and drones to Russia for the war in Ukraine.

Throughout the Gaza war, Mahan Air was suspected to have facilitated the transfer of money from Iran to the Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, culminating in at least one search by Lebanese authorities of a Mahan Air flight in Beirut on 2 January 2025.

In July 2025, Mahan Air acquired five Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, circumventing international sanctions by using a convoluted, year-long process involving front companies, a temporary registration under a Malagasy start-up called UDAAN Aviation, and off-radar ferry flights from Cambodia to Iran. The aircraft, previously with Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary NokScoot, are believed to be for Mahan Air, an Iranian carrier already under U.S. sanctions. UDAAN Aviation is allegedly linked to the Sodiat conglomerate, owned by Mamy Ravatomanga, according to the Malagasy press.

In 2026, Mahan Air expanded its fleet with five Boeing 777s previously operated by Saudia. These aircraft, which had been sold in 2023, were procured through a network of front companies, representing the airline's second acquisition of the 777 type.