The aviation and aerospace battle in Iran has been heating up as Boeing and Airbus go head to head to see who will emerge with the lion’s share of the market. Maghsoud Asadi Samani, the Secretary of Iran's Aviation Companies Association notes that the increasingly heated competition between two of the world’s biggest and premier aircraft manufacturers have brought much difficulties to the sales of aircrafts in Iran. Airbus requires an OFAC license in order to sell any aircrafts to Iran.
This is incredibly trifling and complicated as the license can only be issued by the US given that the Americans are actively pushing Boeing into the Iranian market. This has created a standstill in negotiations between Iran Air and the international companies. Another complication revolves around the ban on trading with US dollars for Iran. Airbus is forbidden from making a deal in Iran until all banking complications are fully resolved. With both manufacturers staking a claim on the Iran market and neither willing to budge this has created a bottleneck in regards to progress that needs to take place in order for either manufacturers to solidify their foothold.
The Secretary of Iran’s Aviation Companies Association released a public statement reassuring the companies that Iranian airliners are working to address insurance problems for foreign financing as a prerequisite to purchasing aircraft. Asadi Samani admits that the high costs of buying airplanes is a detriment to private airlines and that progress is stymied because the actions cannot be carried out simply by relying on domestic resources citing the exorbitant costs involved. Samani went on to stress that there are measures being taken by Iranian companies to import newer and younger aircrafts in order to provide better services to their customers.
He also revealed that resolutions for the banking issues are being looked at and resolutions are being worked on. The US has imposed very strict trade and finance sanctions on Iran mandating entities inside US and subsidiaries in other countries to obtain written permission from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for doing business and engaging in trade for money, goods and services with Iran.
