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Airbus, Boeing Executives To Visit Iran Next Week

By Orkhan Jalilov December 14, 2017

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Iran has signed contracts to buy 100 Airbus, 80 Boeing and 20 ATR passenger planes to renovate its fleet with an average age of more than 20 years. / Iran Daily

Senior managers of the global aviation companies Airbus and Boeing are expected to arrive in Tehran next week to negotiate and decide on the financing of Iran’s newly-purchased passenger airplanes.

“Our preference is to use domestic financial resources, but we also have the option to finance the purchases through Airbus and Boeing themselves,” Massoumeh Asgharzadeh, the head of Iran Air’s public relations office said on December 13, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

The lifting of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran as a result of the deal reached in July 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action but better known simply as ‘the nuclear deal’ or ‘Iran deal’, has opened the floodgates of financial opportunities for Iranian businesses. Iran’s aviation industry has signed deals worth $18 billion with Airbus, Boeing and the joint venture ATR, between France’s Airbus and the Italian company Leonardo.

In December 2016, nearly one year after sanctions began to be removed, Iran Air signed a contract with Boeing for 80 passenger planes: 50 of the narrow-bodied Boeing 737 passenger jets and 30 wide-body 777 aircraft. One month later the airline, which has suffered in recent decades from security and system failures to what was an aging fleet, signed agreements to buy 118 planes from Airbus, before cutting the number to around 100.

In April of this year Iran also signed a deal to purchase 20 ATR 72-600 with the company ATR. Iran received four ATR 72-600s planes earlier this year, and the deliveries of the remaining aircraft are to be completed by the end of 2018.

Iran Air has already received three Airbus passenger planes, and will get another by the end of this month. The first batch of Boeing aircraft are to arrive in Iran sometime in May 2018.

In April, Boeing also signed a deal valued at $3 billion with Iran’s Aseman Airlines for the purchase of 30 Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. The agreement also provides the airline with purchase rights for an additional 30 jets. Boeing signed the deal under authorization given by the U.S. government following a determination that Iran had met its obligations under the nuclear accord signed in 2015.

Iran’s aviation industry suffered greatly under international sanctions. Most of the country’s jets were banned from the EU's skies in 2010 after an increase in accidents due to mechanical failures involving Iranian owned and operated planes. Iran Air had been restricted to operating just 12 of its 43 aircraft after airport inspections revealed serious safety problems.

Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said in September 2016 that Iran needs to add 500 passenger planes to its fleet within the next 10 years to renovate its fleet with an average age of more than 20 years.