TEHRAN (Dispatches) -ATR aims to deliver another eight aircraft to Iran by the end of the year after delivering six so far this year under U.S. export licenses issued following the lifting of international nuclear-related sanctions in 2016, Scherer said.
On September 28, Iran took delivery of two ATR 72-600 aircraft at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
They were the fifth and sixth ATR planes Iran has received since May.
Since the coming into force of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran has received a total of nine new planes, including three Airbus passenger planes and 6 ATR turboprops.
Iran Air and the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR spent months negotiating an order for 20 ATR 72-600 aircraft worth $576 million at list prices, with options for another 20.
Iran is gradually receiving the passenger planes purchased from Airbus, ATR , and Boeing, following the implementation of the JCPOA, the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the U.S., Britain, France and Germany).
During a January 2016 visit to Paris by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Tehran signed a major contract with Airbus worth about $27 billion to buy 118 planes.
Later in June 2016, Iran sealed another deal worth around $25 billion with the U.S. aerospace heavyweight, Boeing, for the purchase of 100 passenger planes.
In December 2016, the deal with Boeing was finalized, allowing Iran to buy 80 planes within 10 years.
European plane maker ATR says it plans to deliver eight more turboprop planes to Iran within the next few weeks.
The announcement was made by ATR Chief Executive Officer Christian Scherer who said the deliveries would be made under export licenses issued by the US Treasury Department following the lifting of international nuclear-related sanctions against Iran in 2016.
Scherer further emphasized that the company, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Italian aerospace group Leonardo, had recorded a higher number of international deliveries for 2017 compared to last year, emphasizing that figures showed an increase of 50 percent.
ATR, which competes with Canada’s Bombardier, has seen a marked recovery in orders this year after they dropped by more than half to 36 in 2016, their lowest level in seven years, Reuters reported.
In early 2017, the company signed an agreement with Iran to sell 20 turboprop planes to the country’s national flag-carrier airline Iran Air.
Iran Air took delivery of the first four ATR aircraft in May and two more in late September.   
The planes can carry 70 passengers and would be used in flights over a maximum distance of 1,528 kilometers.
They are projected to be used among regional cities as part of a commercial plan, covering a populous crescent straddling Iran’s northwest and northeast.
Iran’s aviation officials had already said the ATR fleet may be based in the Caspian city of Rasht to connect small towns to big cities such as Tabriz and Mashhad in Iran and the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.