Iranian airline Mahan Air, which has entered the Ukrainian market, plans to begin performing flights from the Odesa airport to Iran jointly with the airline UM Air (Kyiv) in July this year, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.

"We plan to perform flights to Odesa jointly with UM Air. It will be sometime in the summer, in July," an advisor to Mahan Air’s General Director Mehdi Aliyari told reporters in Kyiv on Sunday, March 20.

On that day, the company performed its first flight from Tehran to Kyiv jointly with UM Air.

UM Air’s Chairman Rodrigue Merhej said that the plans to begin flights to Odesa have received final approval. "We are currently considering the feasibility of flying not specifically to our regional city but, on the contrary, to regional cities of Iran from Kyiv. It has great prospects," he added.

According to him, tickets for the first flight were sold at USD 220, but the highest price could reach USD 350 if a ticket is bought on the day of departure.

The companies also launched joint flights to Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Bangkok (Thailand), New Delhi (India), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), and Guangzhou (China). "Connection of flights from two to three hours. In fact, passengers will fly from Ukraine at around 11:00 or 12:00, arrive in Tehran toward the evening, fly to South-East Asia at night, and arrive in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in the morning," the head of UM Air said.

The flights of Mahan Air and UM Air will compete with those of the UIA, flydubai, and Turkish Airlines on these routes.

Mahan Air is the largest airline in Iran. It has a fleet of 60 aircraft. The airline transported 5.7 million passengers in 2015.

UM Air was founded in 1998. Its majority owner (a 90% stake as if July 2012) is Rodrigue Merhej. According to information on the website of the airline, it performs regular flights from Kyiv to Beirut (Lebanon), Amman (Jordan), Baghdad (Iraq), and Tehran (Iran). Its aircraft fleet consists of MD-82 and MD-83 aircraft.