US aviation giant Boeing announced that its sale agreement with Iranian national carrier Iran Air involves a mix of direct sales and leases.
In an attempt to allay the concerns of US lawmakers, Boeing in a letter offered details with respect to the deal and said it includes 80 sales valued at $17.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Earlier, two senior Republican House of Representatives lawmakers had expressed concerns over Boeing’s plans to sell aircraft and associated parts to Iran.
Selling aircraft and parts to Iran could “threaten” US national security, Representatives Jeb Hensarling and Peter Roskam claimed in a letter to Boeing released last week.
According to the report, the company said it would also help Iran Air lease 29 new aircraft, all 737s.
Of the direct sales, 40 would be for the 737 MAX and six of the current Next-Generation 737 model, 15 for the the 777-300ER and 15 for the coming 777-9X. The order would also include four 747-8s.
Each of the aircraft would arrive in Iran with ties to Wichita, where Spirit AeroSystems Inc. has work on all Boeing commercial programs, it added.
That includes building about 70 percent of both the Next-Generation and MAX models of the narrow-body 737.
The deliveries would run through 2025.
In a statement on Tuesday, Boeing said it has signed an agreement with Iran “under authorizations from the US government following a determination that Iran had met its obligations under the nuclear accord reached last summer.”
Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) finalized the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16.
The JCPOA terminated all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran after coming into force.
The statement by Boeing came after Iran Air confirmed that it has reached a deal with the American carrier and that it wants to buy new generations of the Boeing 737, as well as the 300ER and 900 version of Boeing 777.
Head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Ali Abedzadeh said on Sunday that Tehran and Boeing have reached a deal for the purchase of 100 aircraft.
“Both sides (Iran and Boeing) have reached a written agreement for buying Boeing airplanes,” Abedzadeh said.
Back in January, Iran signed a major deal worth $27 billion with aviation giant Airbus to purchase 118 planes from the company. The deal with Airbus was sealed during a state visit to Paris by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.
Iran has a fleet of 250 aircraft, of which 90 are grounded due to the economy or missing parts, Managing Director of Iran Air Farhad Parvaresh said recently.
Of that total, 80 percent will need to be renewed in the next decade, he said, adding that growth could add even more jets to Iran’s shopping list.