Lufthansa in talks with Iran Air over catering, maintenance deals

Lufthansa is in talks with Iran Air to provide catering, maintenance and pilot training as it seeks to take advantage of emerging business opportunities in the country, executives at the German airline group said Wednesday. Foreign companies have been vying for contracts in Iran since economic sanctions were lifted last year in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme. "We are in very, very intense discussions, actually almost on a weekly basis," said Karsten Zang, Lufthansa's regional director for the Gulf, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, a Lufthansa spokesman later told Reuters that "the talks with Iran Air are just held to explore business opportunities in the areas of catering and maintenance. There are however no concrete plans for a cooperation." Lufthansa Group subsidiaries LSG Sky Chefs, Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Pilot Training are seeking the contracts with Iran Air whilst the group is also in talks to provide services to other Iranian aviation firms, Zang said. Iran has signed orders for 200 new Western-built aircraft for Iran Air, taking delivery so far of two new Airbus A330s and an A321. "We are talking with Iran Air because their new aircraft are coming. They need training, of course, and we have the experience in all of these fields but we can't give timelines," Zang said.<br/>