Iran Aseman Airlines has signed a memorandum of agreement with the American planemaker Boeing to purchase 30 B737-Max passenger jets worth $3 billion based on catalogue prices with the option of adding 30 more in the future.
“The agreement was signed on March 18 in the presence of Boeing representatives in Tehran … after almost one year of negotiations,” director general of the carrier’s public relations, Seyyed Amirreza Mostafavi, told Financial Tribune on Tuesday.
He said the deal is now pending licenses from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, adding that Aseman expects to finalize a contract in three to four months.
Boeing confirmed the deal in a statement, saying the deliveries would be scheduled to start in 2022.
Iran Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran’s Civil Service Pension Foundation, is the second Iranian airline to order brand new aircraft from Boeing after the lifting of nuclear sanctions in January 2016, as part of the nuclear deal Iran clinched with the world powers earlier in 2015.
In December 2016, Iran Air finalized a deal with Boeing to buy and lease 100 jets including 50 narrow-body 737max 8s, 15 wide-body 777-300ERs and 15 777-9s, which will be delivered to Iran Air over 10 years.
Aseman’s deal with Boeing comes at a time when many believe the US President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on Iran has put the plane deals at risk.
The Wall Street Journal referred to the recent agreement as Boeing’s first agreement with an Iranian airline since Trump, a critic of closer ties with Tehran, took office.
Both Airbus and Boeing have received licenses from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to supply 200 passenger aircraft to Iran Air. Airbus has agreed to sell 100 planes to the flag carrier.
Iran Air has already received three of the airplanes it ordered from Airbus. It is also in talks to finalize another contract with French-Italian manufacturer of regional planes ATR to purchase 20 aircraft with the option of adding 20 more.
ATR and the Iranian carrier have failed to reach a final contract as yet, amid uncertainty over licenses for engines made by a Canadian subsidiary of Pratt & Whitney. It is America's top military engine-maker that supplies to the F-35 fighter project.
