Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 28
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Russian airplane manufacturer Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company needs to receive necessary permission from the United States in order to sell Sukhoi Superjet 100 short-haul passenger aircraft to Iran, Secretary of Association of Iranian Airlines Maqsoud Asadi Samani said.
Any country that wants to sell planes to Iran’s airline companies needs to receive approval from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Asadi Samani said, ISNA news agency reported.
In recent weeks various media outlets reported that certain Iranian airlines are negotiating with the Russian company to purchase Sukhoi Superjet 100.
Asadi Samani explained that actually the talks were for leasing, not purchase of aircraft.
“Unfortunately OFAC permission is needed even for leasing aircraft,” he said, adding that the Russian company should obtain the necessary permission to sell or rent a plane to Iran.
If the Russian side obtains the permission, it can negotiate with Iranians for cooperation, otherwise delivering the Russian aircraft to Iran is impossible, at least in the near future.
The country’s flag carrier airline, Iran Air, has already signed deals to buy 100 planes from Airbus, 80 from Boeing, and 20 from ATR.
