Iran confirms order for 100 Airbus aircraft, after 80 Boeing – Echoes

Eleven months after the visit to Paris, iranian president Hassan Rohani, the national airline Iran Air is finalizing the contract for the purchase of Airbus aircraft then announced. Thursday, the aircraft manufacturer has signed the sale of 100 aircraft, of which 46 copies of the family of short-haul A320, 38 long-haul A330s and 16 copies of its new A350. For Airbus, this is one of the ten largest orders in its history, even if it is deflated compared to the first announcements of Iran Air.

The company wanted to buy 118 aircraft, of which 12 widebody A380, all for a list price of us $ 25 billion. The company has gradually realized that her eyes were a little bigger than the belly, particularly for large-holders, in the absence of facilities appropriate to the Tehran airport. In the meantime the modernization of its airport, Iran Air is so bent on a “more modest” $ 20 billion at list prices. A official amount which does not mean much.

A fleet of breath

The leaders of Iran Air talking about their side of a maximum of ten billion dollars. But Airbus does not communicate on the subject, nor does it specify the timing of deliveries. The manufacturer says just that it will deliver its first aircraft in January. The first, probably a A320, would be, even before the 20 January, the date of the inauguration of the president of the United States Donald Trump, who has shown himself very hostile to Iran during his election campaign.

The president of Airbus, Fabrice Brégier, evokes a long-term relationship for upgrading the fleet of iranian are out of breath after thirty years of embargo. “Our global agreement includes the training of pilots, airport operations and air traffic control, which also makes this contract a first milestone in the overall modernization of the commercial aviation sector of iran “, he said. In spite of the reluctance of a large number of institutions in europe and the u.s. not wanting to take the risk of a new american embargo, Iran Air would have found it without too much trouble financiers on the transaction.

Two weeks after Boeing

the signature of The contract by Airbus comes barely two weeks after the one that was concluded with Boeing for the delivery of 80 aircraft (16.6 billion dollars at list prices). After having obtained the green light from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the u.s., Airbus and Boeing will agree to weigh against any attempt by Donald Trump to establish a new embargo, a year after the lifting of the sanctions related to its nuclear enrichment program. Boeing already makes campaign stressing that the agreement iran represents 10,000 jobs. And the iranian market will be a long time attractive ; 230 aircraft need to be replaced on the 250 devices existing in the country, said in June the director general of civil aviation iran Ali Abedzadeh. By adding the prospect of a recovery in air traffic, the requirements rise so quickly to 400 devices, including about a hundred regional aircraft.

Anne Bauer