News / Economy

Mahan Air to fly Airbus despite US threat

Tuesday, 02 June 2015 11:06 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 09 June 2015 9:29 AM ]

Mahan Air will begin using its first used aircraft on the international route.

Iran’s Mahan Air will begin Wednesday using the first of nine Airbus aircraft purchased recently on the international route, the Fars news agency reported.

The A340 passenger plane will be initially used on the Tehran-Dubai and Tehran-Istanbul routes before being operated in long-haul journeys, it said.

Mahan Air flew eight A340 and one A321 used planes to Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports in Tehran and Mashhad airport last month.

The US government imposed sanctions on two aviation companies in Iraq and the UAE for selling the commercial aircraft to Iran.

The Treasury Department designated Iraq-based Al-Naser Airlines and Sky Blue Bird Aviation in the United Arab Emirates as sanctions violators.

Mahan Air is under US sanctions as of Oct. 2011 but Iran has rejected any possible seizure of the planes.

Mohammad Khoda-Karami, deputy head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), has said US sanctions against Iran's aviation industry lack any legal basis.

“Iran will never wait for the permission of any country for exercising its legitimate rights," he said.

Fars said all the nine aircraft have been registered by CAO and Mahan Air and have legal identification numbers for operation.

Mahan Air is Iran’s second carrier, and along with flag carrier Iran Air, is working to rebuild the country’s aging commercial fleet which has suffered a series of aviation mishaps under US and European sanctions.

CAO head Ali Reza Jahangirian has said Iran needed to buy up to 500 passenger planes in the next 10 years to renovate its fleet.

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