29 Mar 2024
Sunday 31 January 2016 - 18:15
Story Code : 199504

Minister: Iran, Airbus to finalize deal in 20 days

TEHRAN (Tasnim) An agreement that Iran has reached with Airbus plane manufacturer to purchase 118 passenger aircraft will be finalized within 20 days, Irans Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi announced.

Speaking in a televised program on Saturday, Akhoundi said the preliminary deal that was signed during President Hassan Rouhanis official visit to France should be finalized within 20 working days.

He said the agreement, worth $10.5 billion, will allow Iran to receive the planes within a span of eight years, beginning next month, under a hire-purchase system.

According to the minister, the countrys state-owned airline, known as Iran Air or Homa, will get 45 A320 single-aisle aircraft, 45 A330 wide-bodies, 16 A350 twin-aisle aircraft, and 12 A380s.

Akhoundi said Iran needs 500 new aircraft to renew its civil air fleet. He noted that only 150 out of the countrys 250 planes are now operational, none of them less than 22 years old.

On January 29, Asghar Fakhrieh, a deputy minister said the value of the contract with Airbus stands between $10 and $11 billion, noting that the $27 billion cited in the reports relates to the catalogue value of the aircraft, something the plane makers release in order to keep the real price of the deal in the dark.

By Tasnim News Agency
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