Iran Air Orders 20 ATR 72-600s, Options 20 More

Iran’s national flag carrier Iran Air has signed an agreement in Teheran to order up to 40 ATR 72-600 turboprop regional airliners.

The agreement includes an initial firm order from Iran Air for 20 ATR 72-600s plus options on 20 more.

On February 1, 2016, Iran Air signed an agreement in Tehran with turboprop regional airliner manufacturer ATR to order up to 40 ATR 72-600s. The deal included an initial firm order for 20 aircraft and options on 20 more

ATR values the potential entire deal for 40 ATR 72-600s at €1 billion ($1.09 billion) and expects Iran Air to use the aircraft primarily on domestic routes within Iran.

The signing of the deal follows commercial discussions held with ATR in the past few days in Rome and Paris, during the visit of the President of Iran, Hassan Rohani, and the Minister of Transportation of Iran, Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi.

During the negotiations, the Italian and French states played an important role in achieving the signing of this deal, according to ATR. They did so through the participation their respective export credit agencies, Sace and Coface, in the order negotiations.

This means both export credit agencies will be providing loan guarantee support to Iran Air, to assist the carrier in obtaining low-cost debt finance for its order of ATR regional aircraft.

According to ATR, the newly open Iranian market (following the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran by the leading Western powers a few weeks ago) provides strong potential for the development and expansion of Iran’s domestic air routes and traffic.

Iran Air was created in 1961 from the merge of the former Iranian Airways and Pars Airways, and began flying in April 1962.

At present, Iran Air flies to 35 international and 25 domestic destinations.