Iranian Airline to Lease Brazilian Embraer Planes

An Iranian airline is going to lease three Brazilian-made ‘Embraer’ passenger planes from an Asian country, a top official said.

CEO of Kish Airlines, Farzaneh Sharafbafi, said her company has plans to boost its fleet of passenger planes by leasing aircraft from the foreign countries.

She also noted that plans have been finalized to lease three Brazilian-made Embraer passenger planes with foreign aircrews from an Asian country.

Kish Air owns 12 airliners, Sharafbafi added, noting that its fleet includes more than 3,500 seats.

She also noted that two planes belonging to Kish Air are under major repairs and will be in service soon.

Embraer is a Brazilian plane maker, known as the third largest producer of civil aircraft, after Boeing and Airbus.

Iran received a total of 16 passenger planes after the 2015 nuclear deal took effect, including three from Airbus and 13 from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR.

The US decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reinstate sanctions resulted in the collapse of about $38 billion in plane deals between Tehran and Western firms, with Airbus suffering greater damages than its US rival Boeing.

During a January 2016 visit to Paris by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Tehran signed a major contract with Airbus worth about $27 billion to buy 118 planes.

Later in June that year, Iran sealed another deal worth around $25 billion with the US aerospace heavyweight, Boeing, for the purchase of 100 passenger planes.