Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Following the nuclear deal, foreign companies specialized in aviation industry has lined up to participate in projects aimed at renovating Iran’s aviation fleet.

In a bid to assert its share in the jet manufacturing business, Russia is also interested in exporting its aircrafts to Iran.

A Russian bank has announced interest in exports of Superjet International passenger planes to Iran.

In an interview with the Rossiya Segodnya news agency on August 13, acting general director of Sberbank Leasing, Kiril Tsarev said he saw a big demand by Iran for passenger planes in the short term and that his company was interested in supplying Superjets to the country.

Russian media, citing the country’s aviation officials, have already reported on possible delivery of three Superjets to Iran, beginning in 2016, but Iranian officials have appeared to deny it.

Sberbank Leasing Zao, a subsidiary of Russia’s top lender Sberbank, has tied up with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company to offer prospective buyers lease of up to 50 Superjet SSJ100 passenger planes.

However, an Iranian official has recently said Iran’s experience with Russian-made passenger aircraft has not been a good one, therefore it is unlikely that Iranian aviation companies would try to use Russian airplanes anymore.

Maqsoud Samani Assadi, secretary of Iran’s Airlines Association told Trend that economic calculations and Iran’s bad experience with Russian Tupolev airplanes make it more likely that Iranian aviation companies would seek Airbus and Boeing products more.

Tsarev further said aircraft exports to Iran would begin as soon as the window opened for such sales after the removal of sanctions.

“The issue is not which foreign side will get to the Iranian market first but which company will have aircraft ready for sale before 2018,” he said.

In July, Russia's Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said his country was in talks to sell Superjet passenger planes to Iran.

However, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said on the issue that Iranian airlines will carefully examine all options for the country's new aviation fleet purchases and definitely will not restrict their choices to a single country or aircraft manufacturing company.

Iranian officials earlier said the county will need 400-500 civilian aircraft worth at least $20 billion in the next decade to renovate its aging fleet which has suffered under years of U.S. and European sanctions.

Earlier this year, Iran added 9 new planes less than 10 years old to its air fleet.

The U.S.-led sanctions on aircraft and spare parts exports to Iran have left Iranian airlines saddled with not only some of the oldest fleets in the Middle East, but also in the world.

Iran's four largest carriers – Iran Air, Aseman Airlines, Mahan Air and Iran Air Tours – all have average fleet ages above 22 years, according to Iranian media outlets.

--

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz