Iran’s mammoth jet orders signal ambition to join airline elite

Iran’s signing this week of an outline deal for 109 Boeing jetliners 5 months after agreeing to buy 118 from Airbus underscores the scale of the former pariah state’s airline ambitions. The purchase of almost 230 planes would create a fleet three-quarters the size of that at British Airways and larger than the current line-up at Etihad Airways, one of three Gulf carriers that transformed air travel in the years Iran was stymied by trade sanctions linked to its nuclear programme. While it’s not certain that Iran Air will take all of the jets specified under the accords — with the US contract in particular still facing significant hurdles — the arrival of models such as Airbus’s A380 double-decker and Boeing’s 777-9 seems set to swell the business to global proportions. <br/>