Iran has reached an agreement with the US plane manufacturer Boeing to purchase commercial aircraft, the minister of roads and urban development said.
Abbas Akhoundi was also quoted as saying on Tuesday that details of the agreement will be announced in the coming days, Mehr News Agency reported.
Boeing has been in talks with Iran for months to secure as lucrative a deal as the one its arch rival Airbus clinched with the Islamic Republic back in January. The agreement with the French planemaker is worth $27 billion and entails Iran buying 118 jetliners.
Iran Air Chairman Farhad Parvaresh earlier told Reuters in an interview that a Boeing deal will not be bigger than Airbus; “maybe close, but this also depends on the situation.”
“The number and type of aircraft have to be discussed in the future, but the first step is to have mutual understanding.”
For the first time after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which marked the beginning of US sanctions on Iran’s aviation Industry, Boeing officials visited Iran in April to discuss supplies to flag carrier Iran Air and other Iranian airlines under a license granted by the US government in February.
The US company had yet to obtain another permit to strike a deal with Iran and then further export licenses, similar to those required by Airbus due to the use of US technology, to complete it.
According to Akhoundi, Iran needs 400 mid- and long-range and 100 short-haul planes to overhaul its aging fleet after years of sanctions.
“That means $50 billion worth of investment,” he said.
