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Iran needs news planes to renovate its fleet

17 April 2015 22:09 (UTC+04:00)
Iran needs news planes to renovate its fleet

By Sara Rajabova

Iran’s need for passenger planes has increased as the country expects to see an improvement in its transactions with foreign countries, should a final nuclear deal between world powers and Iran be reached.

Since the country reached a tentative nuclear framework agreement in Lausanne in early April it is anticipated a surge in activities and Iran has said to be keen to revamp its aviation fleet.

Ali Reza Jahangirian, head of the country’s aviation organization said Iran needs to buy up to 500 passenger planes in the next 10 years to renovate its aging fleet, Press TV reported.

He said a number of plane manufacturers have traveled to Iran over the past year, discussing possible agreements and assessing the market, without naming the airlines.

“Aircraft manufacturers are seriously working to forge interactions with Iran and not fall behind in the race once the situation changes,” Jahangirian said.

In February, Iran said it had concluded three contracts with the U.S. aviation giant Boeing after it signed the Geneva nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of countries in the late 2013.

Last year, major U.S. aerospace manufacturers, Boeing and General Electric, applied for export licenses in order to sell airliner parts to Iran following the November 2013 deal.

The official said Iranian airlines are currently operating with a fleet of about 140 aircraft, which is “lower than the average international norms in terms of international indexes of population and area”.

“Over the past year, several aircraft manufacturers repeatedly travelled to Iran and held discussions with airlines and the organization in the area of assessment of the Iranian transportation market,” Jahangirian said.

The Iranian aviation industry is under U.S. sanctions. The U.S. Treasury has barred Iranian airlines, including Iran Air, from landing or operating in the U.S. Furthermore, extraterritorial U.S. sanctions prevent European airports from providing Iranian carriers with fuel or accepting their money.

A preliminary agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in November 2013 led to an easing of sanctions in the aviation sector.

Boeing entered into an agreement with Iran Air in 2014, which generated $120,000 in gross revenues, the American company said then. The deal included the sale of aircraft manuals, drawings and navigation charts as well as data to the Iranian flag carrier airline.

American engine manufacture General Electric has also received permission from the U.S. government to sell spare parts to Iran.

The United States and European nations have imposed severe economic sanctions on Iran in recent years aiming to pressure Tehran to dramatically reduce its nuclear program for a lengthy period of time to keep it from developing nuclear weapons.

However, Iran has denied the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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