New airline takes off in Tehran

Iran gained another air carrier in early February when AVA Airlines commenced operations.The Tehran-based outfit took delivery of its first aircraft, a Boeing 737-500 registered EP-RBA (c/n 25185), on January 24. The 32-year-old twinjet was first delivered to Mexican carrier TAESA in February 1992. It later spent four years between 1996 and 2000 flying as G-OBMR for British Midland. Its most recent operators were a trio of Russian carriers Aeroflot-Nord (2006-2009), Nordavia (2009-2019) and Smartavia (2019). The airframe was placed