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The first flight of the company in its new Iran service period landed at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) on Saturday evening, local media reported.

The Amsterdam-based company had suspended flights to Iran since April 2013 in what its officials said was a result of 'economic reasons'.

KLM Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer René de Groot said that his company is set to establish four flights to Tehran each week.

He underlined that his company is happy to resume flights to Iran, adding that he hopes the sanctions against the Islamic Republic would never return.

"What we do is [that] we continue as long as we can," de Groot told IRIB. "Of course, we hope that the sanctions will not come back and we can grow even with more frequencies."

KLM had in August announced that its Flight KL0433 will depart from Amsterdam to Tehran on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays as of late October 2016.

The flights will be operated with a Boeing 777-200 in a three-class configuration with 34 business seats, 40 seats in economy comfort and 242 seats in economy, it added.

Including the new flights to Tehran, KLM now offers 37 flights to nine destinations in the Middle East.

Several international airlines are resuming flights to Iran to tap into increasing opportunities in the country after the recent lifting of sanctions.

British Airways also resumed direct flights to Iranian capital Tehran from July. The airline now operates six weekly flights and will move to daily flights from winter 2016.

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In the meeting, Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Mohsen Pourseyyed-Aqaei reported on the successful transfer of experimental goods on the India-Iran-Russia route, stating "the containers reached destination within 22 days indicating that all transit barriers on Iran's corridor have been removed".

Mamuka Bakhtadze, director general of Georgian Railways said his company, in collaboration with Azerbaijan Republic, has embarked on a project to transfer European containers as of November.

"A German firm is negotiating with commodity owners to transport cargos from Georgia to Azerbaijan and later to Tehran via sea in the second half of November," he continued.

The official noted that Georgia is looking for venues to expand the route hence more importance lies on the development of Amirabad port as well as efforts to remove duties on trucks passing through Azerbaijan via Astara.

Also at the meeting, Andre Hempel, managing director of Trans Eurasia Logistics (TEL), said talks have been launched with Romanian firms and will later begin with Polish firms. "The ultimate goal, however is to encourage German customers to carry chemical products and other types of goods.

"Transit time holds great significance and customers' attention can be attracted if the time is slashed."

He noted that the transit process can be accomplished within seven days although it could last for one more day longer if customs document need further clarification.

Iran's railway chief reassured that no limitation exists on supplying and organizing trucks to carry containers in Astara as 40 to 41 trucks will be deployed in accordance with envisaged timetables.

Also speaking at the quartet meeting, Javid Gurbanov, chairman of Azerbaijan Railways, reiterated that the Caspian Sea is replete with cargo and passenger vessels for maritime transport. He called for more attention to Astara as a hub for goods transit.

"The main source of delay in container transit is that Thursdays and Fridays are the weekend in Iran though they are considered as weekdays in other states," underscored the official recommending that Iran runs customs services on these two days.

Pourseyyed-Aqaei promised that the holiday issue between Iran and Azerbaijan will be resolved by having customs administrations work 24/7 given the similar conditions at the Sarakhs border."

Following an agreement on transit duties, the Iranian side voiced readiness to join the unified tariff and discount plan. Iran and Azerbaijan also agreed to reach a final deal on the cost of transshipment for which a draft contract will be prepared.

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