A deal for Iran to buy 20 short-haul passenger aircraft from ATR should be signed imminently, the head of the European planemaker told Reuters on Friday.
The deal will come after Iran, which had not directly purchased a Western-built plane in nearly 40 years, signed contracts with Europe’s Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing last year to purchase about 180 jets.
“We have concluded the negotiations and we should sign the contract imminently,” ATR’s CEO Christian Scherer told Reuters.
Some Iranian media quoted ATR officials as saying on Friday that the deal had been signed.
Toulouse-based ATR, co-owned by Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo Finmeccanica, reported in February preliminary orders from Iran for 20 twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft.
Iran’s first Western airplane ordered since the lifting of sanctions, an Airbus A321, landed at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport last week.
Both Airbus and Boeing need U.S. export licenses to deliver the jets because of the number of U.S. parts they contain. Some U.S. unilateral sanctions still remain in place.
Both have received licenses but some need to be extended due to the lengthy delivery period and analysts expect Boeing to point to the Airbus delivery to argue its deal should go ahead.
Reuters
Six major European countries announced on Friday that they would join a special trade exchange designed to alleviate the impact of the US sanctions on Iran. Belgium, Denmark, Finland,...
China, Iran to forge closer ties due to common threat from United States, analysts say
French minister criticises US over ‘unanswered’ Iran attacks
Islam has the best argument in support of human rights: Judiciary chief
UN adopts eight resolutions in condemnation of Israeli crimes in Palestine
Trump’s maximum pressure policy on Iran has backfired and experts say it will fail
S. Korea’s exports of humanitarian goods to Iran effectively halted after U.S. sanctions
Copyright © 2013 Real Iran. powered by Wordpress.