By Mahmoud Hakamian
Maghsoud Asadi Samani – the secretary of Iran regime’s Aviation Companies Association – states: “we used to import brand-new airplanes but now we’re no longer able to do that.” Adding: “our contracts with Airbus and Boeing are suspended, and our agreement with ATR remains unclear; which makes everything even more difficult. Going forward, our aircraft companies will take into consideration their budget as well as special fleet management programs”.
He adds: “What we do first, is place orders based on our own finances and the airplanes would be imported a little later”. This was later confirmed by Mohammad Eslami, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development.
Boeing was the first company to sign a contract with Iran’s regime. According to which, 50 Boeing 737 and 30 Boeing 777 type were to be delivered to Iran; however, following Trump’s announcements, this agreement was also cancelled.
On 21 March 2017, Iran had announced several different contracts, one of which was signed with a Franco-Italian aircraft manufacturer named ATR. But after the delivery of just 8 airplanes (and of course, with the sanctions coming into play), the contract was cancelled.
Another contract was signed with Airbus, based on which Iran had ordered 100 airplanes for Homa airline. But due to the regime’s inability to fulfil its financial obligations, only 3 planes were delivered.
According to ISNA, from all the planes that have been ordered, 46 are from Airbus320, 38 from Airbus330, and 16 from Airbus 350. Out of all, only 16 have been delivered, and 97 have very little chance of ever being delivered.
With the second round of sanctions (which according to US is targeting Iran’s political figures only) many international companies fear cooperating with Iran (as they fear being penalised); hence why Iran has been struggling to renew its air fleet management for some time now, and has also been forced to use intermediates for the purchase of second-hand planes. That, in addition to the recent air accidents (over the past year or so) prove just how desperate Iran really is.