European aviation giant Airbus to sell 73 planes to Iranian airlines

Airbus says it has signed basic agreements with two Iranian airlines over the purchase of a total of 73 planes. (Photo by AFP)

European aviation giant Airbus says it has signed basic agreements with two Iranian airlines over the purchase of a total of 73 planes.

Airbus said in a statement that Iran’s Zagros Airlines would pick up 20 aircraft from the single-aisle Airbus A320neo family and eight A330neo planes.  It added that another airline – Iran Airtour – would also buy 45 planes of the A320neo type. The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show.

Iran Airtour in a statement put the value of its deal with Airbus at €4.5 billion.

It added that the planes would be from A318, A319, A320, and A321 models with passenger capacities ranging from 100 to 240 people. 

Also,  Zagros Airlines CEO Seyed Abdolreza Mousavi told Iran’s domestic media that his company would lease the planes from Airbus. 

Airbus in its statement further added that the agreements with Zagros Airlines and Iran Airtour were contingent upon all necessary approvals, including 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 IranAir 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.