Iran Aseman and Iran Air Tours signed letters of intent on Thursday with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company at Turkey’s Eurasia Airshow, calling for the delivery of a customized version of the Superjet 100 version dubbed RRJ95R from 2020 to 2022-23. Each carrier wants 20 aircraft.
The RRJ95R would contain markedly less foreign content while keeping the SSJ100’s Powerjet SaM.146 turbofans supplied by a partnership between France’s Safran and Russia’s NPO Saturn.
The manufacturer expects both airlines to convert their LOIs to firm orders by the end of the year, Aviation International News reported.
“We intend to increase the share of Russian-made items by 10-15%,” SCAC CEO Alexander Roubstov told journalists at the show.
The RRJ95R would feature a different APU, inertial navigation system, interior, electrics and hydraulics.
Replacing those selected previously for the initial version of the Superjet 100 would not only decrease the aircraft unit cost, currently listed at $52 million at catalog prices, but also eliminate the need to obtain approval for Superjet sales to countries Washington forbids.
Roubtsov said that most of the new components would come from members of the government-controlled Rostec Corporation, a target of US sanctions in accordance with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, passed by the US Congress and signed by US President Donald Trump last year.
Rostec member company Technodinamika has agreed to supply 15 vendor items for RRJ95R. SCAC has also asked KRET and other local suppliers to provide an avionics package similar to that developed for Irkut MC-21.
The Kremlin has long pushed Tehran to buy jetliners from United Aircraft Corporation, including the SSJ100 and Irkut MC-21.
For months, however, UAC and SCAC could not get US approval for Superjet sales to Iranian airlines and now it has become apparent that one would not be forthcoming, prompting the Russians to offer a design carrying less than 10% US content.
$2b Deal Amid Delays in Airbus, Boeing Orders
According to Forbes, with an average list price of $50.5 million each, the two orders have a total value of just over $2 billion.
The SuperJet is a 100-seat regional aircraft designed and built by Sukhoi in partnership with Italy’s Finmeccanica-Alenia Aermacch. The first flight by the plane was conducted in May 2008. The latest version has an operating range of just over 4,500 km, placing much of Europe, north and East Africa and south and Central Asia within range of flights from Tehran.
The signing of the memorandums suggests that a recent marketing push by the Russian firm was a success. A Sukhoi Superjet 100 visited Tehran’s Mehrabad International airport in February to secure orders for its jet.
According to Iranian media reports, Iran Air Tours is expecting to take delivery of the first planes from Russia “within a year”.
The financing arrangements behind the deals with Aseman and Iran Air Tours have not been revealed. However, it is likely to prove easier to arrange terms with the Russian company than it has been with Airbus or Boeing, something which appears to be behind the delays in deliveries from the western firms. Moscow has recently begun discussions with Iran and Turkey to encourage more trade using local currencies rather than US dollars; to date, the talks have focused on oil sales, but it is possible it could be extended into other areas.
Iranian airlines have placed orders for several hundred new planes since most international sanctions on the country were lifted in early 2016. The most active buyer has been Iran Air, which has ordered 118 planes from Airbus, 80 from Boeing and 20 from European turboprop maker ATR. In April last year, Aseman also ordered 30 Boeing 737 Max jets.
Together, these deals represent several tens of billions of dollars’ worth of aircraft. However, relatively few have been delivered, with just a handful of Airbus and ATR planes arriving in Iran to date and no Boeing planes.
Eight more ATR turboprops are scheduled to be delivered this year, along with three more Airbus jets and three planes from Boeing, according to recent comments by former deputy roads and urban development minister, Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan.
However, he said the Boeing deliveries were “provided that we finance the purchases” and, similarly, the Airbus planes would only arrive “If we are able to make our payments”.
Boeing CEO: Iran Deliveries Deferred
Boeing has found new homes for jets it hoped to deliver to Iran this year, further clouding the prospect of quick deliveries as Trump considers whether to withdraw from a pact to remove nuclear-related sanctions.
The head of the US planemaker also signaled on Wednesday that Boeing is no longer as concerned as it once was that a collapse of the deal could force it to cut production of the 777 jetliner, threatening hundreds of jobs, due to a pickup in demand, Reuters reported.
“We have no Iranian deliveries that are scheduled or part of the (production) skyline this year, so those have been deferred in line with the US government process,” Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said in a conference call.
“I can tell you with confidence that we have continued to build risk mitigation into our 777 production plan.”
Boeing agreed in December 2016 to sell 80 aircraft to Iran Air under a deal between Tehran and major world powers to reopen trade in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities.
These included 15 Boeing 777-300ER long-range jets for which Boeing has obtained US export licenses.
Industry sources said Boeing had been tentatively due to send Iran three 777s this year but has reshuffled deliveries with other buyers.
The original deal for 777s threw vital support to one of Boeing’s most profitable jets, which is nearing the end of a decades-long production run, pending the switch to a new model.
It has already cut production due to a drop in sales. In late 2016, it told staff the lower output plans took account of Iran, while publicly stressing the value of the deal to jobs.
On Wednesday, however, Muilenburg said Boeing would not have to trim production of the 777 any further even if Iran were unable to take any deliveries of the $347 million jet. “The production rate that we have put in place is not dependent on the Iranian orders,” he said.
“If those orders do come to fruition, if we do ultimately deliver airplanes, those represent opportunities for us but we are going to follow the US government’s lead and we have ensured that ... we are not dependent on those aircraft.” Sales of 777s rebounded in 2017, more than doubling to 60.
Trump has often vowed to pull the US out of the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six major powers. He will decide by May 12 whether to restore US economic sanctions on Tehran, which could be a first step to ending the deal.
Iranian officials have said repeatedly the United States must honor the agreement and have accused Washington of hampering not only the delivery of US aircraft, but also European planes purchased under the same accord, because of practical restrictions on financing.
The European firms rely on US export licenses to complete their deals because of the number of US parts in each plane.
So far, Washington has issued licenses covering a period that would allow about a third of the Airbus deliveries to go ahead, but it remains unclear how a US withdrawal would affect these.
