Tasnim� The first long-range wide-body Airbus A330 from a series of aircraft that Iran has purchased from the French aerospace giant in a bid to renovate its aging fleet landed in Tehran on Saturday.





The Airbus A330, which is an intercontinental plane, landed at Mehrabad International Airport on Saturday morning.

The aircraft has 238 seats including 36 business class seats. The range of the airplane is about 13,400km.

The first Airbus A321 purchased from the European giant had been delivered to Iran Air earlier on January 12.

During a January 2016 visit to Paris by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Tehran signed a major contract with Airbus worth about $27 billion to buy 118 planes.

Iran and Airbus intensified business negotiations in October 2016 following the US decision to remove a final hurdle for Western aircraft manufacturers to sell planes to Iran under contracts signed after coming into force of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear agreement between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

While Western plane makers are very keen on trade with Iran, Washington still demands that even non-American manufacturers wishing to sell to Iran obtain an export license if their products include materials made in the United States. Airbus, based in Europe, buys more than 40 percent of all its aircraft parts from the US.

Iran sealed another deal in June worth around $25 billion with the US aerospace heavyweight, Boeing, for the purchase of 100 passenger planes.

In December, the deal with Boeing was finalized, allowing Iran to buy 80 planes within 10 years. The first deliveries are expected in 2018.