Iranian aircraft deals ready for takeoff as sanctions end​

The removal of sanctions on Iran could unleash a wave of aircraft deals as the Persian Gulf country seeks to renew one of the world’s oldest plane fleets. The US and Western countries have agreed to lift an embargo on aircraft sales to Iran as part of a wider accord to end the country’s nuclear-weapons programs. Years of sanctions, some imposed in the wake of its revolution in 1979 rather than over the country’s nuclear program, have left Iran with one of the world’s oldest aircraft fleets. “Decades of sanctions have affected a carrier’s ability to source spare parts and new aircraft, resulting in an average fleet age of 22 years for Iranian airlines, twice the international average,” airline consultancy OAG Aviation Worldwide said. Iran’s transport minister, Abbas Akhoundi, on the eve of the lifting of sanctions, told a semiofficial Iranian media outlet that the country had struck a deal with Airbus Group SE to acquire 114 planes once the trade restrictions were removed. The removal of sanctions would unfreeze tens of billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue.<br/>