TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Transportation Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that his country will add new passenger plane to its fleet in the near future despite the fact that the US unilateral sanctions are barring foreign companies and entities from selling anything related to civil aviation to Tehran. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Eslami announced […]
TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Transportation Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that his country will add new passenger plane to its fleet in the near future despite the fact that the US unilateral sanctions are barring foreign companies and entities from selling anything related to civil aviation to Tehran.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Eslami announced that the new airbus passenger plane will be delivered to the country in the very near future amid sanctions that have made it difficult for airlines to renovate their fleet.
The minister did not elaborate on details of the deliveries, weather the planes were new and which airline would get hold of them.
Local media said that the planes will be delivered to flag carrier Homa, known internationally as IranAir.
There was no confirmation from the company, neither was there any other report suggesting that the airline prepared to get the deliveries in the near future.
However, a Friday report by another local source said that Iran’s Kish Airlines had leased three Airbus planes from a foreign country and that the deliveries were due.
The delivery of the three new Airbus planes to Iran comes amid tight sanctions imposed by the United States which have effectively barred the country from buying new aircraft.
The sanctions, enacted in November last year, even caused Airbus to stop the planned delivery of planes ordered by Iran in 2016.
Airbus has delivered only three of a total of 112 planes ordered by Homa. Two more deliveries planned for late 2018 did not happen.
Homa has also ordered 80 planes from American plane-maker Boeing and 20 more from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR.
The ATR sent 11 aircraft to Iran before the US imposed bans on the sale of commercial planes to Iran last year while Boeing has made no deliveries at all.
Iranian officials say the government has paid no down payment for future deliveries of the planes ordered in 2016.
- source : FNA, Iran News
