The mégacommande 18 billion Iran Air Airbus – Challenges.fr

While Airbus was waiting, she eventually fell just before Christmas. Nearly a year after the announcement of the agreement in the presidential Palace during the visit to Paris, iranian president Hassan Rohani, Iran Air has formalized a firm order for 100 aircraft to Airbus, including 46 of the A320 family, 38 long-haul A330s and fifteen copies of the new A350. A contract of $ 18 billion at list prices signed just two weeks after an order of 80 aircraft to the competitor Boeing, which is estimated at 16.6 billion dollars. The final contract had long been blocked by the need to obtain approval from the OFAC, the arm of the u.s. Treasury in charge of enforcement of sanctions, the united states, the Airbus with more than 10% of content made in the USA. The obtaining of the valuable export licenses in two stages, in September and in November, completed the deal before the end of the year. The first deliveries are scheduled for early 2017.

The A380 at the door

while the agreement originally provided for 118 aircraft, or 18 more than the final command. Of course, it included also 12 large aircraft A380, which have finally disappeared from the shopping list. But Airbus would be wrong to be choosy. The one hundred aircraft ordered by Iran Air to allow the european company to be closer significantly to its goal of more than 670 orders on the year. At the end of November, Airbus had a total of 410 net orders. The command of iran brings the total to 520 controls. Commercial director John Leahy keeping traditionally warm several tens of orders for the last few days of the year, it is possible, even probable, that he found the 150 aircraft missing by 31 December.

For Iran Air, the arrival of the new aircraft will be a hell of a breath of fresh air. The company uses the A300 and A310 30 years of age, the 747 of the same age, of the MD-80 and Foker 100 of breath. With the 180 devices of the dual control Airbus-Boeing, it will recover to the best world standards to try to compete, at least in the long term, companies in the Gulf such as Emirates, Etihad or Qatar Airways. Far from merely single aisle aircraft for domestic routes and medium-haul, the company has invested in 83 long-haul, including A330, 777-300ER, A350, and even the future twin-engine aircraft giant Boeing 777-9. The commitment on the A380 is likely to have encountered the need for specific infrastructures in the airports, the fear of not completing the super jumbos and the fact that the 777-9 is large enough to accommodate more than 400 passengers.

An A321 delivered as early as January?

The Airbus will be the first to enter the fleet. The first delivery, very probably a A321, could take place as early as January 2017. An A321 has been “spotted” in livery Iran Air the last few days by a fan near the Hamburg plant. In an interview to the agency iranian Fars News, the boss of Iran Air said to rely on three deliveries before march 2017, then 7 to 8 more by the end of the year. The first deliveries of Boeing are not expected before the spring of 2018. The market of Iran is probably not finished. The closure is of the order of twenty ATR 72-600s (not more than twenty option), announced last February, is expected in the coming days.