Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Farzaneh Sharafbafi, Iran Air's CEO, said that the flag carrier will finance its plans to purchase Airbus and ATR aircraft through credits from Italian and French companies.
“A part of credit lines from Italian and French companies have been allocated to financing the Iran Air’s purchase of new aircraft,” the CEO told reports on Sunday.
Saying that Iran seeks to diversify its financial sources for purchasing new aircraft, she added that the country made the payment for the already purchased 11 Airbus through the National Development Fund of Iran.
She further added that talks are underway with Airbus to finance the purchase of further airplanes.
The CEO added that the country plans to buy at least 14 new airplanes in the coming fiscal year (starting March 20).
Reuters earlier reported that France will start offering euro-denominated credits to Iranian buyers of its goods later this year, a move to bolster trade while keeping it outside the reach of U.S. sanctions.
France and other European countries have been looking to increase trade with Iran since Paris, Washington and other world powers agreed in 2015 to lift many economic sanctions in exchange for controls on Iran’s nuclear program.
The plan is to offer dedicated, euro-denominated export guarantees to Iranian buyers of French goods and services. By structuring the financing through vehicles without any US link, whether to the currency or otherwise, the aim is to avoid the extraterritorial reach of U.S. legislation.
Earlier in January, the Islamic Republic cemented a $6 billion investment agreement with Italy for financing projects in the Middle Eastern country.
