Iranian Airlines Buy 40 Sukhoi Passenger Jets

The Iranian companies, Aseman Airlines and Iran Air Tours, have signed the deals with Sukhoi on the sidelines of Eurasia Airshow 2018, which kicked off in Turkey’s Antalya on April 25.

According to reports, Iran Air Tours has purchased 20 Superjet-100 passenger planes, while Aseman Airlines has ordered RRJ-95R class of Sukhoi’s latest model of Superjets.

The total value of the contract signed by Iran Air Tours reportedly stands at $1 billion.

Press TV quoted an Iran Air Tours official as saying that the Russian planes will be delivered within a year.

Back in February, Secretary of Association of Iranian Airlines Maqsoud Asadi Samani said Sukhoi had made the latest modifications to Superjet-100 and had overcome the limitations to sales to Iran, as less than 10 percent of the aircraft's components are American-made.

Under the US sanctions, manufacturers selling planes to Iran need a license from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) if at least 10 percent of the plane's components are of American origin.

Iranian officials see Super-100 as a suitable option, considering that many of the country’s airports remain unused due to lack of regional planes with fewer than 100 seats.

Iran is gradually receiving the passenger planes purchased from Airbus, ATR , and Boeing, following the implementation of the JCPOA, a nuclear agreement between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

During a January 2016 visit to Paris by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Tehran signed a major contract with Airbus worth about $27 billion to buy 118 planes.

Later in June 2016, Iran sealed another deal worth around $25 billion with the US aerospace heavyweight, Boeing, for the purchase of 100 passenger planes.

In December 2016, the deal with Boeing was finalized, allowing Iran to buy 80 planes within 10 years.