Kish Air, Airbus in plane order talks

TIN news: Iran's Kish Air said on Sunday that it is discussing with Airbus over the purchases of six A321 jets.
"We are talking to Airbus about six A321s. Our goal is 10 of them," Kish Air CEO Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Sadat Akhavi has been quoted as saying by Reuters.
Akhavi, who was speaking on the sidelines of the CAPA Iran Aviation Summit in Tehran, added that his airline is also interested in aircraft from Brazil's Embraer.   
The aircraft would be financed by selling them onto leasing companies and renting them back, he said, referring to a common form of aircraft funding.
On a related front, Iran’s Minister of Transportation Abbas Akhoundi said the country will sign a contract with Airbus on Wednesday over the purchase of 114 brand new passenger planes for the country’s national flag carrier Iran Air.  
Akhoundi said the contract will be signed during the visit to Paris by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.
He had earlier said that Airbus’s first deliveries to Iran Air are due as early as July.  
Akhoundi has also emphasized that Iran is considering to buy narrow-body 737s for domestic flights and two-aisle 777s for long-haul routes from US aircraft maker Boeing.
Iran has a potential order list for 500 commercial planes to renovate its aging fleet. According to Minister Akhoundi, Iran’s current civil aviation fleet consists of 256 aircraft with an average age of 20 years, of which 100 are in storage.
“We need about 400 long- and medium-haul aircraft and 100 short-haul planes to be used as air taxi,” he said. 
The total buy is estimated to cost about $50 billion, with officials indicating that Iran seeks to acquire the aircraft under lease or sale/leaseback deals.