Iran expects the US Treasury to grant licences by the end of this month that should help pave the way for the completion of the purchase of more than 200 aircraft from Boeing Co and Airbus Group, Iran’s Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan said in Tehran yesterday.
Iran is trying to upgrade its ageing airline fleet and in June signed an agreement with Boeing to buy 80 planes and lease 29 more. But the deal has come under pressure from lawmakers in the US who have discussed various measures to restrict the sale, including prohibiting the Treasury Department from licensing it.
The transaction would be the Chicago-based plane maker’s first in Iran since sanctions on the country were lifted in January and follows a $27bn agreement with Airbus Group for 118 planes. Airbus jets have more than 10% US content so they also require export licences.
“The US should’ve issued the licences already and they haven’t done that,” Kashan said, adding that they will be granted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC. Kashan said Iran has an agreement with a leasing company for $10bn in financing for the Airbus deal and that it will be signed within days.
He didn’t disclose the name of the leasing company or say where it was based. The value of Iran’s deal with Boeing has yet to be finalised and financing talks are ongoing, he said.
“Our latest forecast is that by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2017), we will definitely see a number of those planes, both from Airbus and Boeing, arrive in Iran,” he said.

‘Tehran mulls joining Cape Town aviation finance pact’
Iran may adopt a key international agreement that would protect the rights of foreign leasing companies as it seeks to renew its elderly fleet of passenger jets, the country’s transport minister said yesterday. The 2001 Cape Town Convention makes it easier to attract foreign leasing companies by protecting their rights to re-possess aircraft if airlines go bankrupt and is widely considered a benchmark for the international jet market. “We are studying that. If we come to a (positive) conclusion, we will certainly process it,” Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the CAPA Iran Aviation Finance Summit.