The Jerusalem Post

IranAir gets five more planes before sanctions,

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DUBAI (Reuters) – IranAir took delivery of five more ATR turboprop aircraft, Iranian state media said on Sunday, shortly before Washington imposes new sanctions on Iran after exiting a nuclear pact between Tehran and major world powers.

All five new ATR 72-600 planes landed in Tehran’s Mehrabad airport after leaving Toulouse, France, where they were built, and refueling in Urmia in northweste­rn Iran, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

US President Donald Trump’s decision in May to pull the United States out of a 2015 deal requires most companies to complete ongoing business with Iran before US sanctions are reimposed after a winddown period which expires on August 6.

ATR – co-owned by Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo – has been pressing US authoritie­s to allow it to deliver aircraft it built for Iran.

After the signing of the accord to reopen trade links in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear activities, IranAir ordered a total of 200 aircraft from Western plane makers including 20 from ATR, which is based in Toulouse, France.

But few have been delivered and plane makers say they are unable to use the wind-down period because Washington has also revoked export licenses needed by all Western plane makers due to their heavy use of US parts.

ATR – which had delivered eight planes to Iran under the deal and started building another 12 – has been lobbying the US Treasury to allow it to take advantage of the normal wind-down period for Iran business by giving it temporary new licenses.

Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan, an adviser to Iran’s transport minister, was quoted by the semi-official news agency ILNA as saying that Iran had paid for the five planes on Friday, a day before the planes left France.

“The delivery of these five aircraft is a sign of Europe’s commitment to the nuclear accord,” Fakhrieh-Kashan told ILNA.

ATR declined to comment on Saturday. Industry sources said the final number of planes to be delivered would be known in coming days.

The US decision on Iran has raised question marks over whether ATR can reach a target of stabilizin­g annual deliveries at 80 aircraft in 2018.

The plane maker has said it will suffer financial damage if it cannot deliver the aircraft it has already produced following earlier US approvals, and is looking for alternativ­e buyers.

Airbus said last month it would not attempt to deliver any more planes to Iran in the wind-down period. It has delivered just three of 100 ordered by IranAir.

Boeing, which had sold 80 jets to IranAir under the 2015 nuclear deal, does not plan any deliveries. Unlike the European firms, it never placed the Iranian deal in its official order book on the grounds that it never received a deposit.

 ?? (Marko Djurica/Reuters) ?? AN IRANAIR plane taxis after landing at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport.
(Marko Djurica/Reuters) AN IRANAIR plane taxis after landing at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport.

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