Iran says airlines not interested in Russian planes
Russian aviation officials have recently been voicing readiness to answer Iran’s needs for new planes. However, Iranian officials say the country’s airlines are not interested in Russian planes.
Deputy Director of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Mohammad Khodakarami has told the domestic media that no Iranian airline has submitted any request to the Organization over purchasing planes from Russia.
Khodakarami made the comment in response to a question by Fars News Agency regarding the possibility of purchasing planes from Sukhoi and Tupolev by Iranian airlines.
“Iran’s airlines should obtain the related authorizations of CAO for buying any kind of planes,” he said. “There have so far been no requests from Iran’s airlines for buying these planes (Sukhoi and Tupolev),” he added.
This follows remarks by Sergei Dementiev, the General Director of the Russian commercial and transport aircraft manufacturer Aviastar-SP, that his company is interested in signing deals with Iran to provide the country with advanced Tu-204CM aircraft.
Earlier, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin had also said that Moscow is ready to deliver a large batch of SSJ 100 Sukhoi planes – described as the country’s most modern commercial jets – to Iran before 2020.
CAO’s Khodakarami elsewhere emphasized that the average age of Iran’s aviation fleet stands at 22 years, underscoring the need for the country to purchase new planes.
Airways News website reported in December 2015 that aviation experts expect Iran to order 450 new airplanes – mostly Boeing and Airbus models - over the next five years.
It added that 400 of the new planes will be for mainline services, adding that 150 of them will be used for widebody services. The remaining 50 will be used for regional purposes and will be mostly turboprops.
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