Iran’s flag carrier airline Homa, known internationally as Iran Air, says flights to Sweden will be restored once Swedish authorities remove a temporary ban that came following a major plane crash in Iran on January 8.
“As soon as certificates are received, Homa’s flights to the two destinations (in Sweden) will be resumed,” said Iran Air’s public relations office with reference to flights four days a week by the airline to two Swedish cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg.
The announcement came following a statement by Sweden’s Transport Agency earlier in the day which said it had temporarily halted Iran Air’s flights to the country until Iran clears ambiguities surrounding the crash of a Ukrainian plane near Tehran on Wednesday.
A total of 176 people were killed in the crash of whom two were Swedish nationals, five were dual nationals who had Swedish citizenship and 10 more were others who lived in Nordic country.
Homa’s announcement came hours before Iranian authorities explained all circumstances surrounding the incident, saying that the Boeing 737-800 airliner run by Ukraine International Airlines had been accidentally shot down near Tehran minutes after it became airborne.
The accident came hours after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two American military bases in neighboring Iraq in response to US military’s assassination of a senior Iranian military commander in the Arab country last week.
Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, which accommodates almost all foreign flights to and from the city, issued a statement demanding passengers to check for potential delays or cancellations before heading to the facility which lies more than 30 kilometers to the southwest of the Iranian capital.
The official IRNA agency said in a Saturday report that Sweden might revise its decision to ban Iran Air flight now that Iran had come up with proper explanations about the Wednesday incident.
It said Sweden’s decision to abruptly cancel the flights had disrespected the rights of the passengers while adding that a continued halt would cause a major damage to the Iranian carrier.