TEHRAN (ecoideal)- Iran's National Flag Carrier, Iran Air, entered into service five ATR turboprop aircraft it has just received for busy domestic routes such as Tehran to Mashhad flights.
Iran Air took delivery of the new ATR passenger planes only a day before the return of US illegal sanctions that have already targeted Iran's plane purchases from other major providers.
The planes that had left France’s Toulouse landed in Tehran’s International Mehrabad Airport on August 5 after a short stop for refueling in the Northwestern Iranian city of Urmia.
Iran Air signed a contract to purchase 20 ATR 72-600 aircraft, joint-owned by France-based Airbus and Leonardo of Italy, worth $576 million.
ATR – which had delivered 8 planes to Iran under the deal and started building another 12 – has been lobbying the US Treasury to allow it to take advantage of the normal wind-down period for Iran business by giving it temporary new licenses.
Airbus said last month it would not attempt to deliver any more planes to Iran. It has delivered just three of 100 ordered by Iran Air.
Boeing, which had sold 80 jets to Iran Air under the 2015 nuclear deal, does not plan to deliver any aircraft to Iran.
Source: Farsnews