Minister: Iran, Airbus to Finalize Deal in 20 Days
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An agreement that Iran has reached with Airbus plane manufacturer to purchase 118 passenger aircraft will be finalized within 20 days, Iran’s Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi announced.
Speaking in a televised program on Saturday, Akhoundi said the preliminary deal that was signed during President Hassan Rouhani’s official visit to France should be finalized within 20 working days.
He said the agreement, worth $10.5 billion, will allow Iran to receive the planes within a span of eight years, beginning next month, under a hire-purchase system.
According to the minister, the country’s state-owned airline, known as Iran Air or Homa, will get 45 A320 single-aisle aircraft, 45 A330 wide-bodies, 16 A350 twin-aisle aircraft, and 12 A380’s.
Akhoundi said Iran needs 500 new aircraft to renew its civil air fleet. He noted that only 150 out of the country’s 250 planes are now operational, none of them less than 22 years old.
On January 29, Asghar Fakhrieh, a deputy minister said the value of the contract with Airbus stands between $10 and $11 billion, noting that the $27 billion cited in the reports relates to the “catalogue value” of the aircraft, something the plane makers release in order to keep the real price of the deal in the dark.
