"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 said at a recent conference in Dublin, The Telegraph reported on Monday.

"We are actively looking at it as a destination," he added.

The move came a few weeks after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a lasting nuclear deal between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), came into force.

Based on the nuclear deal, reached in July 2015, all nuclear-related anti-Iran sanctions have been removed.