Tehran, Iran, April 29
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
Iran is ready to deal with the world’s major airplane manufacturers, such as Boeing, Airbus, Sukhoi or ATR, using every opportunity to purchase their aircraft, Secretary of the Iranian Airlines Association Maghsoud Asadi Samani told Trend.
He also positively evaluated the agreement, concluded between Iran Airlines and Russian Sukhoi company.
"Overall, considering Sukhoi’s great effort, made to participate in the airline market of Iran, I think these contracts will positively affect our cooperation, and I also hope that the obstacles that both sides faced due to OFAC’s (Office of Foreign Assets Control) restrictions will be eliminated in future, enabling Sukhoi to provide appropriate services," Samani said.
He added that previously the Russian company was planning to use fewer US-made parts on its aircrafts to reduce the need for the OFAC license.
In February 2017, during the demonstration of Sukhoi 100 aircraft at the Mehrabad Airport, the director of the Iranian Airlines Association stated that given the changes made by Sukhoi and the fact that less than 15 percent of the plane parts belong to the United States, the aircraft does not need to be licensed for the further presentation in Tehran.
Previoulsy, Iran Air Tour Airliner inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for purchase of 20 Sukhoi Super Jet 100 with capacity of 100 seats.
The director of the Iran Air Tours’ Public Relations Department Marziyeh Jafarzadeh said the deliveries of the planes would start within a year, adding that each plane would add 100 seats to the company’s passenger capacity.
The 5-day Airshow was held at Antalya International Airport, one of Turkey's top three busiest airports. Antalya was selected as the venue of the airshow because it meets all the criteria for such an international aviation event including technical and operational infrastructures, ground handling services, accommodation capacity, accessibility, and favorable weather conditions.