Due to safety concerns, Mahan Air will no longer be allowed to operate flights in Britain. The Iranian airline's ban is expected to effect the weekly flights between Manchester and Tehran.

"We have withdrawn their permits to fly commercially here because we weren't satisfied that they were operating safely," a department spokesman told AFP.

"There were a number of recent incidents which suggested a poor level of planning and safety."

These included the discovery that some aircraft were operating without collision avoidance systems, he added.

Mahan Air, whose network spans 21 destinations in 10 countries, is based in Tehran.

In 2006, British investigators announced a probe into an incident in which a Mahan Air jet flying to Birmingham, central England, apparently descended at a dangerously low level and was forced to abort its landing.

A spokesman for Birmingham airport said Saturday that the airline no longer flew there but could not give details of why or when services stopped.

The previous year, a Mahan Air jet flying from Bangkok sped off the airport at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, although no passengers were reported injured.

The Department for Transport spokesman said it would now work with the European Commission to help the airline fix the problems.

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