Iran Air CEO Hopeful Plane Deals Won't be Derailed by Trump Administration
January 11 2017 - 10:20AM
Dow Jones News
By Robert Wall
TOULOUSE, France--Iran Air's chief executive, Farhad Parvaresh,
Wednesday said he remained optimistic the incoming Trump
administration wouldn't derail the carrier's plan to buy new
jetliners from Airbus SE (AIR.FR) and Boeing Co. (BA).
Mr. Parvaresh said the international licenses for the plane
deliveries were in hand, adding, "We hope that nothing special
happens to end this contract."
Iran Air late last year finalized deals to buy 100 planes from
Airbus and another 80 from Boeing, the world's largest maker of
jetliners. The orders are worth more than $34.5 billion at list
price, though buyers typically get deep discounts.
Mr. Parvaresh spoke at Airbus's headquarters in Toulouse during
a ceremony marking the first delivery of an Airbus A321
single-aisle plane. It is the first brand-new plane the carrier has
received in decades. The aircraft technically was already turned
over to Iran Air several days ago and is due in Tehran Thursday to
be used initially in domestic service.
The plane deals between the world's two biggest plane makers and
state-owned Iran Air have been controversial. They are the
highest-profile commercial agreements between Western firms and
Iran since the completion of a 2015 nuclear pact between world
powers, including the U.S., and Tehran. In exchange for Iran
putting curbs on its nuclear program, the powers agreed to lift
many sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
But opponents of the easing of sanctions in the U.S. have tried
to block the aircraft sales. U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has
appointed critics of the easing of Iran sanctions to key posts,
though he hasn't said whether he would try to block the
transactions.
An Airbus executive said he expected the U.S. to honor the
licenses that have been issued.
Iran Air expects to take delivery of around five more
single-aisle planes this year and three A330 long-range jets as
part of fleet-renewal plans, Mr. Parvaresh said. Two of the
narrowbody planes could be delivered in the coming weeks.
Iran Air isn't due to receive the first of its Boeing jets until
next year and the U.S. plane maker has yet to add the order to its
official backlog after signing the contract in December. A
spokesman this week said it was still working through
"contingencies" related to the planned sale, including government
approvals.
Iran Air also expects to soon conclude talks to buy 20 turboprop
airliners from the Franco-Italian ATR joint venture involving
Airbus and Leonardo SpA.
Mr. Parvaresh said the Airbus and Boeing deals should satisfy
Iran Air's fleet-modernization and expansion needs for the medium
term.
He said the airline could eventually consider buying more
planes. He wouldn't rule out an eventual purchase of Airbus's
flagship A380 super jumbo.
Iran Air originally considered buying 12 of those planes, but
decided against them. Iran's aging aviation infrastructure wouldn't
have been able to handle the aircraft at this time, he said.
--Doug Cameron contributed to this article.
Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2017 10:05 ET (15:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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