Iran is willing to purchase 25 short-haul aircraft worth up to $500 million from Japan’s Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, says deputy roads and urban development minister, Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan.
As reported by ILNA on Wednesday, the official noted that the majority of the prospective planes will be supplied by Japan to Iran Aseman Airlines.
This comes as Tokyo-based business journal Nikkei Asian Review earlier reported that Iranian flag-carrier Iran Air and Iran Aseman Airlines held talks with Mitsubishi to buy 80 70-seat Mitsubishi Regional Jets during the Farnborough Air Show that opened in London on July 11.
According to Fakhrieh-Kashan, the negotiations are in initial stages and “neither sides have committed to any obligations”.
The Japanese company, which is a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, began market surveys in Iran last September, four months before the lifting of western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
Mitsubishi Aircraft is partnering with the Japanese government in this endeavor, aiming to make use of state-backed financing.
The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, or MRJ for short, is a twin-engine regional jet aircraft manufactured in a partnership between majority owner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toyota Motor Corporation with design assistance from Toyota-affiliate Fuji Heavy Industries, already a manufacturer of aircraft.
It will be the first airliner designed and produced in Japan since the NAMC YS-11 of the 1960s, which was produced at a loss. Its first flight was in November 2015, with deliveries scheduled for 2018 (for the 90-seat model).
