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]]>Only a day after two Iranian airlines announced deals to purchase planes from Airbus, another Iranian carrier said it has sealed a third deal to buy advanced aircraft from US plane-maker Boeing, Press TV reported.
The head of Qeshm Air said on Friday that the company had placed an order for 10 Boeing 737 MAX planes.
Mahmoud Shekarabi was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying that the purchase of an additional five planes from Boeing 737-800 family was also on the agenda.
He added that relevant deal would be signed with the US aviation major within the next two months.
The purchase, he underlined, followed months of negotiations in Mexico and Iran.
The official further said Boeing would obtain the required licenses from the US Treasury Department for the sales of planes to Iran, adding that deliveries would be made after 2022.
On Thursday, European aviation giant Airbus says it has signed basic agreements with two Iranian airlines on the purchase of a total of 73 planes.
Also, Zagros Airlines CEO Abdolreza Mousavi told the domestic media that his company would lease the planes from Airbus.
In its statement Airbus added that the agreements with Zagros Airlines and Iran Airtour were contingent upon all necessary approvals, including those from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
On the same front, Reuters quoted Airbus Sales Chief John Leahy as saying that he expected the US approvals within the next couple of months.
Zagros is already the largest operator of Airbus single-aisle aircraft in Iran with 11 A320ceo planes, AFP said in a report on the agreements.
Like Airtour, Zagros will use the new planes to upgrade its fleet and expand operations both at home and internationally, AFP quoted Zagros chief as saying in the Airbus statement.
Iran Airtour was established as a subsidiary of Iran’s national flag-carrier airline Iran Air in 1992 and privatized in 2011 but maintains a status as subsidiary of IranAir.
Zagros Airlines is a private carrier.
IranAir has already ordered 100 planes from Airbus, 80 from US rival Boeing and 20 ATR turboprops.
Boeing has also signed a deal for 30 737 MAX jets with Iran’s Aseman Airlines, which is managed as a private company and owned by Iran’s civil service pension foundation, Reuters added.
According to estimates from the Iranian civil aviation authority, the country’s airlines will need to purchase between 400 and 500 new planes over the next decade, AFP wrote in its report on the Airbus deals with Zagros Airlines and Iran Airtour.
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]]>The long-haul aircraft, with Iran Air Chairman Farhad Parvaresh and other officials onboard, took off from the French city of Toulouse on Saturday and landed at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport five hours and 30 minutes later, IRNA reported.
The A330, which has 32 business class and 206 economy class seats, is suitable for long-distance flights and is expected to be used initially on European routes and on flights to Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.
The jetliner joins a smaller A321, which flew to Tehran on January 11.
“We are working very closely with Airbus, and we are both very keen to stay on schedule and committed to the contract that we made together,” Parvaresh told Reuters on Friday.
Iran had not directly purchased a Western-built plane in nearly 40 years, the one exception being the sale of an Airbus to replace one shot down by the USS Vincennes in 1988.
Iran ordered 100 aircraft from European plane maker Airbus in an 18-billion-dollar deal signed last year, which includes 46 aircraft from the A320 family, 38 from the A330 family, and 16 of the A350 XWB.
In the same year, Iran inked another agreement worth 16.6 billion dollars to buy 80 new planes from US aviation company, Boeing, comprising 50 737 jets and 30 777s.
Iran Air is also expected to finalize an accord to purchase 20 turboprops with European manufacturer ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo Finmeccanica.
The agreements came after the restrictions imposed on Iran’s aviation industry were lifted following a nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The JCPOA was negotiated between Iran and the P5+1 countries – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, plus Germany. It was finalized on July 14, 2015 and started being implemented on January 16, 2016.
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