New Planes Added to Iran Air Fleet
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran Air, the national Iranian carrier, received three Airbus A319 passenger planes on Sunday.
In a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday, attended by the minister of road and urban development, Iran Air received the narrow-body commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners.
The three planes that belonged to a local airline joined Iran Air’s fleet on the occasion of the 57th anniversary of its foundation.
The number of Iran Air’s aircraft grew to 32 with the coming into service of the three new ones.
CEO of Iran Air Farzaneh Sharafbafi had announced last week that the airline is going to operate more flights to handle the high-season trips during the new Iranian year’s holidays, saying a total of 380 seats will be added to the capacity of Iran Air flights during the holidays.
In remarks in December 2018, she had stressed that Iran Air would push for the delivery of the passenger planes it has purchased from Airbus.
Iran has received a total of 16 passenger planes since the 2015 nuclear deal took effect, including three from Airbus and 13 from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR.
The US decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reinstate sanctions resulted in the collapse of about $38 billion in plane deals between Tehran and Western firms, with Airbus suffering greater damages than its US rival Boeing.
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 that year, Iran sealed another deal worth around $25 billion with the US aerospace heavyweight, Boeing, for the purchase of 100 passenger planes.