TEHRAN (Dispatches)- CEO of Iran Air Farhad Parvaresh announced on Wednesday that the giant U.S. aviation company Boeing will deliver its first passenger plane to the Iranian national flag carrier early next year.
"The first Boeing 777 jumbo jet will be handed over to Iran in April 2018," Parvaresh told reporters.
He noted that the 777 model of Boeing will be 350-seated aircraft.
In early April, Iran signed a new agreement with Boeing to purchase several twinjet narrow-body passenger planes.
The agreement was signed between Iran's Aseman Airlines and Boeing and involves the purchase of 30 Boeing 737 MAX planes.
The agreement came after almost a year of negotiations between Aseman Airlines and Boeing.
Boeing is to provide 50 planes of the same type to Iran’s flag-carrier airline Iran Air through a similar agreement. The overall value of Iran Air’s order that also involves 30 long-range wide-body 777 aircraft is estimated to be $16.6 billion.
The planes are expected to be delivered to Aseman Airlines from 2019. The Iranian airline is expected to receive at least five of the purchased aircraft during the same year.
Boeing 737 MAX planes - that would enter service in the second half of 2017 – have a passenger capacity of 130 people and are specifically adequate for domestic and regional flights.
The planes that Aseman Airlines has purchased from Boeing would increase the company’s passenger transportation capacity to above 8,000 seats.
And also, a senior aviation official announced that Iran will be handed over the first ATR passenger plane on April 28.
"The ATR 72-600 passenger plane is currently undergoing flight tests in France and it will arrive in Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport on Friday," CEO of Iran Air, national flag carrier, Farhad Parvaresh said on Tuesday.
He noted that three other ATR 72-600 passenger planes are also slated to fly to Tehran next Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.
The senior aviation official reiterated that all four airplanes purchased from 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 on the fuselage of the manufactured jetliners," he added.