Iran Air has signed an agreement to buy aircraft from Chicago-based Boeing Co., the first major American company to make a deal in the Islamic Republic since the last year’s landmark nuclear agreement, which lifted worldwide sanctions. Boeing said it would “continue to follow the lead of the USA government with regards to working with Iran’s airlines”.
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On Sunday, Head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Ali Abedzadeh said Tehran and U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing have reached a deal for the purchase of 100 aircraft in a bid to upgrade the country’s aging fleet.
But it is said that completing a transaction with Iran could take Boeing months.
The aerospace manufacturer’s business agreement is the largest between the US and Iran since 1979.
“We thought to speed up our ties with Airbus, we should make a deal with Boeing first”.
Boeing on Tuesday confirmed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOA) with state-controlled Iran Air for an unspecified number of new airliners. Comments Khamenei made in April apparently caused Iranian officials to strike models from General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet division off a list of allowed automobile brands for the Iranian market.
An Iran Air Boeing 747 passenger plane sits on the tarmac of the domestic Mehrabad airport in the Iranian capital Tehran, January 15, 2013.
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. While concrete details about the order agreement remain unclear, officials in Iran have told local media outlets that the sale would involve 100 Boeing aircraft.
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The country’s civil aviation authority is attempting to modernise its fleet by adding between 400 and 500 aircraft over the next 10 years. Republican Representatives Jeb Hensarling and Peter Roskam said in a letter to Boeing released on Friday that, “American companies should not be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian Regime”.
