TEHRAN, Aug. 05 (MNA) – Five ATR turboprop aircraft landed in Mehrabad Airport on Sunday morning, to be added to the Iran Air’s fleet. As part of efforts to replenish ageing fleet, five new ATR 72-600 planes arrived in Urmia International Airport on Sunday, after an 8-hour flight from Toulouse of France, and after the refueling process headed to Tehran and landed in the Mehrabad Airport around 10 o'clock in the morning. IranAir signed last year a contract to buy 20 ATR 72-600 aircraft, joint-owned by France-based Airbus and Leonardo of Italy, worth $576 million. ATR - which had delivered 8 planes to Iran under the deal and started building another 12 - has been lobbying the US Treasury to allow it to take advantage of the normal wind-down period for Iran business by giving it temporary new licenses.
Airbus said last month it would not attempt to deliver any more planes to Iran in the wind-down period. It has delivered just three of 100 ordered by IranAir. Boeing, which had sold 80 jets to IranAir under the 2015 nuclear deal, does not plan any deliveries.