"Aseman Airlines has recently signed an MoU with the Boeing company to buy 30 Boeing 737 planes but finalization of the contract depends on permission of OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury)," Secretary of Iranian Airlines Association Maqsoud Asaadi Samani said.

CEO of Irans national flag carrier, Iran Air, Farhad Parvaresh announced in April that Boeing will deliver its first passenger plane to the country early next year.

"The first Boeing 777 jumbo jet will be handed over to Iran in April 2018," Parvaresh told reporters.

In a relevant development in early April, Iran signed a new agreement with Boeing to purchase several twinjet narrow-body passenger planes.

The agreement was signed between Irans Aseman Airlines and Boeing and involves the purchase of 30 Boeing 737 MAX planes.

The agreement came after almost a year of negotiations between Aseman Airlines and Boeing.

Boeing is to provide 50 planes of the same type to Iran Air through a similar agreement. The overall value of Iran Air’s order that also involves 30 long-range wide-body 777 aircraft is estimated to be $16.6 billion.

The planes are expected to be delivered to Aseman Airlines from 2019. The Iranian airline is expected to receive at least five of the purchased aircraft during the same year.

Boeing 737 MAX planes - that would enter service in the second half of 2017 – have a passenger capacity of 130 people and are specifically adequate for domestic and regional flights.

The planes that Aseman Airlines has purchased from Boeing would increase the company’s passenger transportation capacity to above 8,000 seats.

Iran Air said in December 2016 that it had finalized an agreement with Boeing to buy 80 new planes. The company accordingly announced that Boeing would start to deliver the planes in 2018 and the deliveries would be completed within 10 years.

Iran has already received the first three of a total of 100 Airbus planes that it has purchased from the European company through an agreement worth around $18 billion. More deliveries are expected to take place over the next months.

source: farsnews