Iran Air unveiled its overhauled 25-year-old Fokker 100 on Wednesday.
The aircraft had been grounded for over two years for lack of landing gear and engine, an official with Iran’s flag carrier airline said.
Noting that the overhaul process took four months to complete, Mahmoud Naderi added that the aircraft has undergone tests and is waiting for its flight permit from the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran.
“Two more grounded Airbus jetliners will be overhauled and added to Iran Air fleet for hajj [Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca] flights,” ILNA quoted him as saying.
The Fokker 100 is a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner from Fokker, the largest such aircraft built by the company before its bankruptcy in 1996. The type possessed low operational costs and initially had scant competition in the 100-seat short-range regional jet class, contributing to strong sales upon introduction in the late 1980s.
After the Islamic Revolution, as a result of economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States, Iran Air was unable to expand or replace its fleet. The prolonged period of time that Iran Air was under international sanctions and barred from purchasing spare parts and new planes led to a dramatic rise in its average fleet age and plunging safety record.
The imposition of international sanctions over Iran's nuclear program exacerbated the situation for the flag carrier Iranian airline.
However, the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015, which led to the removal of international nuclear sanctions against Tehran, paved the way for Iran Air to renew its aging fleet. The flag carrier secured massive orders from giant plane manufacturers after the conclusion of the nuclear deal. Its orders included 100 Airbus, 80 Boeing and 20 ATR passenger planes, with an aggregate value of $20-30 billion.
Later, as the US reimposed unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the delivery process of the orders placed by Iran Air came to a halt after the US Treasury Department revoked the licenses of Boeing and France’s Airbus to sell commercial planes to Iran Air.
Although Airbus is based in France, it must have the approval of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to sell planes to Iran because at least 10% of the components of the aircraft are US-made. This is also the case with any other planemaker.
An Airbus A321, two Airbus A330s and 13 ATR 72-600 turboprops, five of which were delivered hours before the first reimposition of the first batch of sanctions in August have been delivered to Iran as part of the contracts.
The remaining orders have been cancelled, as OFAC revoked previously issued licenses allowing the sales of brand-new airplanes to Iran. This is while selling airplanes to Iran was among the issues directly addressed in the nuclear agreement.
