Publish Date: 26 April 2017 - 09:12

TEHRAN, Apr. 26 (MNA) – A director of Iran Air has announced that the first out of four ATR 72-600 airplanes will arrive in Tehran on Friday April 28 after going through flight tests.

The official at Iran's national carrier, Iran Air (Homa), made the announcement adding “the three remaining aircraft are scheduled to fly to Tehran individually on next Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

It is worth noting that all four airplanes purchased from by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR have successfully passed primary tests and are conducting pilot takeoffs and landings at Toulouse–Blagnac Airport in France. Additionally, logo of Iran Air has been painted in the fuselage of the manufactured jetliners.

Previously on April 25, Iran Air CEO Farhad Parvaresh stated that the Iranian airline will receive four ATR aircraft within three weeks given that the deadline for the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer has expired for a week.

Parvaresh also noted that, as per the contract with Boeing, the first Boeing 777 Wide-body jet airliner will be delivered to Homa in a year’s time.

He also touched upon the latest status of negotiations with the largest German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG explaining “not long ago, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was sealed with Lufthansa on technical and operational training, catering and corporate restructuring as well as business cooperation. The agreement was recently implemented in the commercial sector though talks are still underway on other provisions.

“So far, good progress has been made with Lufthansa for issues like repair, maintenance, pilot training and catering which will probably lead to further cooperation between the two sides,” underlined Iran Air CEO Parvaresh.

The French-Italian ATR plane manufacturer has signed a deal with Homa to provide it with 20 planes. This is a third plane manufacturer after Airbus and Boeing had successfully signed lucrative deals with Iran. Efforts to sign a deal with Brazilian manufacturer Embraer had been uninspiring and plans were abandoned in favor of Airbus and Boeing. 

HA/3962105/3962409