No Boeing, No Airbus; Iran Air Will Buy Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is in high demand as Iran’s national airline, Iran Air, is exploring to buy its fleet of passenger liners with the purchase of aircraft from foreign manufacturers outside the US and Europe. The Russian side with its short-haul Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100) might turn out to be the most suitable and reliant partner for Iran Air.

According to the spokesman, Tehran needs to establish commercial relations with those aircraft manufacturers that are not dependent on the supply of components from the United States and the granting of licenses by the US government. 

“We will be happy for those (foreign) companies that can supply the necessary aircraft for Iran Air. We are ready to buy (Russian) SSJ-100 or other liners produced not in European countries, ”the spokesman stated.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the international agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, while US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the revocation of licenses to supply Boeing and Airbus aircraft to Iran. The United States imposed a ban on any delivery of American Boeing or even the European Airbus due to the fact that most of the components are made in the United States.

In January 2016, Iranian authorities announced plans to purchase more than 200 Boeing and Airbus aircraft. This decision was associated with the lifting of US and EU sanctions as a result of the conclusion of a nuclear deal in 2015, which did not allow the Islamic Republic to purchase passenger liners, as well as spare parts for them, in order to modernize its heavily worn air fleet.

In December of the same year, Iran expressed interest to purchase around 80 aircraft from Boeing for its national carrier Iran Air amounting to a whopping $ 16.6 billion.

Iran is interested in purchasing aircraft Russian SSJ-100 and intends to proceed on to procurement after the resolution of issues on the supply of components. This was stated on October 22 by the Iranian ambassador to Russia, Mehdi Sanai, in an interview with Izvestia.

“With regard to the SSJ-100, Iran is interested in buying the Russian aircraft. We need small planes, as most of the Iranian airports cannot accommodate large planes”

According to the ambassador, two memorandums of understanding have already been signed with the manufacturer Sukhoi Superjet. In addition, Sanai affirmed that Iran is very keen to develop cooperation with Russia in the fields of aviation, space, construction of power plants, railway transport and other sectors.

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