Boeing Co (BA.N) has signed an agreement to sell jetliners to Iran Air, the company said on Tuesday, confirming Iranian statements about the deal and briefly sending its shares up sharply in early trading.
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Boeing negotiated the MOA under authorizations from the United States government following a determination that Iran had met its obligations under the nuclear accord reached last summer. Boeing was the largest supplier of civilian aircraft to Iran before the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. But with the looming presidential elections and simmering politics in Washington D.C., signing off an Iranian multibillion dollar deal could delay even further.
Iran and Boeing go a long way back.
It is also not certain that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will approve the purchase. But he has also allowed Rouhani’s government to negotiate the nuclear accord as a way to ease sanctions and reopen trade ties with the West.
Boeing said it had reached a preliminary agreement with the state-owned carrier as it seeks to check the boxes in a multistep process overseen at every stage by USA regulators.
Iran Air, the country’s biggest carrier, now serves 27 domestic and 29 worldwide routes, needs the upgraded aircraft as it rolls out a 10-year plan aimed at moving from survival mode to expansion.
Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing would not divulge details about its deal with Iran Air – not the number of aircraft involved, the specific models or the price tag.
Akhoundi said the first Boeing planes could arrive by October if the deal moves forward.
The carrier said it will obtain the planes through a lease purchase, pending clearance from the Iranian and US governments.
Iran Air has already signed agreements to buy 118 planes from Airbus and 20 from ATR, a French-Italian aircraft manufacturer.
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But in a sign of possible obstacles for Boeing, some US lawmakers have complained about the company’s outreach to Iran. “It’s not American jobs that are on the line, but potentially American lives”.
