BA for Tehran?

With trade restrictions for Iran now lifted British Airways hopes to start flying to Tehran in the near future.

"We are very interested in flying to Tehran and we are hopeful that it will form part of BA's network in the very near future," Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA owner IAG, told the Global Airfinance conference in Dublin.  "We are actively looking at it as a destination," he added.

If it does happen, likely to be twice daily, it will be interesting to see what Heathrow slots will be dropped to make way for the resurrected service.

Mr Walsh confirmed that IAG has held talks on the possibility of purchasing second-hand Airbus A380s as it says the existing options it holds for new aircraft make it too expensive.  Malaysia Airlines, said to be reducing its fleet size, operates aircraft, just like BA, with Rolls-Royce Trent engines.

"We have options on A380s… but we are not going to exercise them because they are too expensive," he said. "But we are interested and have had some discussions in the opportunity to purchase second-hand.  We think this is an attractive proposition," he said.  www.ba.com

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