Three aircraft, possibly RJ85’s, were ferried at the same time from India via Iran to Kabul
At December 21, 2023 three (maybe four) aircraft were simultaneously flown from Hyderabad, India to Chabahar/Konarak International Airport (OIZC) in Iran. Flightradar showed that two aircraft had Congo registrations. Malcolm J Bezzina spotted these flights first and reported on X.
The three are (al spotted at Flightradar)
TN-AKP HEX 036114 (left HYD 0738 UTC landed OIZS around 1129 UTC)
TN-AKO HEX 036113 (left HYD 0832 UTC landed OIZS around 1154 UTC)
unknown HEX 036116 (left HYD 0717 UTC landed OIZS around 1109 UTC)
A source stated unknown HEX 036112 also departed however there is no sign on Flightradar this happened.
These aircraft will be flying for Ariana Afghan Airlines and operated by Iranian Mahan Air. A source stated the aircraft when ferried from India to Kabul had Iranian crew. At least one was wearing a military uniform.
Iran providing these aircraft to the Taliban regime makes sense. At December 19, so just two days before the flights of the three RJ85, a former Mahan Air A310 registered EP-MMP was flown from Tehran to Kabul as YA-FGF. The aircraft was in full Ariana livery. A well informed source on X stated Ariana will also receive an Airbus A300-605R soon from Iran.
Back to the ferry flights of the RJ85’s at December 21, 2023.
TN-AKP (left 15:14 UTC) , TN-AKO (left 15:25 UTC) and the aircraft with hex 036116 (left at around 14:30 UTC) later on December 21 departed again Chabahar and landed at Kabul in Afghanistan. The stop at Chabahar was likely a fuelstop . The aircraft avoided Pakistan airspace.
Since 2020 four RJ85’s have been stored at Hyderabad airport. These are former AirLink, a Southafrican airline. The last known registrations are ZS-ASZ E2318, ZS-SSI E2383, ZS-TCP E2389 and ZS-SYO E2394. Possibly the aircraft had Zambian registrations before at least two got Congo registrations for the ferry flights.
Google Maps satellite photos show four RJ45’s parked at the apron of GMR Aero Technic. Historic photos of Google Earth show these four appeared starting November 2020 (one) and December 2020 (three additional aircraft) . Since then the aircraft hardly moved and remained parked outside.
