Correspondents of People's Daily Online in Teheran met with Hossein Hosseini, Director of Marketing and Route Development of Iran’s first privately-owned airlines Mahan Air, to discuss present and future of Chinese aviation market.

Mahan Air started developing Chinese market in September 2011 with 2 flights a week in Shanghai, now there are 9 flights a week between China and Iran – 5 to Shanghai and 4 to Guangzhou. Also, by this time next year they plan to “easily double the current numbers and increase it to 18-20 flights per week”.

Last year Mahan Air carried about 75,000 passengers between China and Iran, but by December this year they expect to carry about 110,000 passengers. About 25 percent of the passengers are Chinese, 65-70 percent are Iranians and 5-10 percent are other nationalities. Seat occupation rate of the flights is about 75 percent..

Besides the flights, Mahan Air have a lot of cargo services from Iran to China, but much more from China to Iran, because China is the factory of the world, says Hossein Hosseini. Last year they carried 2 million kilograms of cargo, and this year they expect to carry 2.8 million kilograms of cargo, mostly from China to Iran.

Mahan Air is flying to 11 countries in the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, UAE, Germany and other places; the most popular destinations are Turkey and Dubai. To Dubai there are over 30 flights a week, and to Turkey - over 20 flights a week. Hossein Hosseini says that China has the biggest rise in passengers; it shows the biggest growth in passenger number in Eastern Asia.

As for the future of Chinese aviation market, Hossein Hosseini told the correspondent that he can see the endless possibilities with China. In 2013 there was 39 billion dollars of trade between China and Iran. This year they are expecting 50 billion dollars. “Maybe next year we will have 60 billion dollars, which translates into a lot of passengers traveling. Iranians are very interested to visit China, not on business, but on leisure. Now we are planning mini tours from Iran – first people travel to Beijing, take a train to Shanghai and then have a flight to Teheran from Shanghai. That’s an opportunity that didn’t exist before. We are really anticipating a huge increase in the number of Iranians traveling to china in 2015, because of this arrangement, also we have made the trip cheaper,” he said.

Mahan Air already took some steps towards becoming a part of the New Silk Road. He said, “That’s why our planning for some routes include Silk Road countries – for example, we just started Armenia, we will probably start Georgia, which is also near the Silk Road. We want to be part of it – reviving the Silk Road”.

Hossein Hosseini has visited China over 40 times and he says it never ceases to amaze him. “No country in the world impresses me more than China and I’ve been to more than 120 countries. Chinese have so much energy and so much ethics about loving their country. I think every Iranian should go there and see it – see the impossible”.