Iranian Airways

  May 1944 to 1961

  Iran

TYPE: Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: IR / IRA

HEADQUARTERS: Teheran

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAMES: United Iranian Airlines (1961-1962), Iran National Airlines (1962-1970's), IranAir (since 1970's)

Iranian Airways was founded in May 1944 by Reza Afshar and Gholam Ebtehaj. After the war, the airline created a passenger route network from Teheran, with scheduled service to Mashhad,, Esfahan, Shiraz, Bushehr, Abadan and Ahwaz service. International services started in 1946, with flights to Cairo, Baghdad and Tel Aviv, and in April 1947 to Paris. The fleet was composed of Douglas DC3s, DC4s and later Vickers Viscounts.

In 1949, Iranian Airways absorbed its domestic competitor Eagle Airlines. In 1961, Iranian Airways was nationalized, and merged with private airline PAS (Persian Air Services) to form United Iranian Airlines, later to become Iran National Airlines, more commonly known as IranAir.

1951* to 1952*

Iranian Airways either leased a couple Commandos from SAIDE, or purchased them and never took them up. In any case, Commando operations by Iranian Airways were very limited, if there were any.

• Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando: EP-ACM, EP-ACW