Boeing signs first major deal with Iran under Trump administration
Boeing has signed a $3.4 billion deal with Iran's Aseman Airlines to supply 30 737 MAX aircraft to the carrier. It’s the first Boeing deal with Tehran since President Donald Trump took office pledging to take a harder stance with the country.
Aseman is owned by Iran's civil service pension fund and operates as a private company. It is the third-largest carrier in Iran.
The 30 jets are to be delivered as part of a larger deal, which implies a possible delivery of another 30 planes to Aseman. Boeing described the deal as a "memorandum of agreement."
At current prices, the 30 jets are worth $3.4 billion. However, carriers usually enjoy about 50 percent discount for such deals. The deliveries will start in 2022.
President Trump has said he opposes the cancellation of Iranian nuclear sanctions. However, he has not talked about the aircraft sales reached after the nuclear deal, which are saving thousands of American jobs.
"According to the US Department of Commerce, an aerospace sale of this magnitude creates or sustains approximately 18,000 jobs in the United States," Boeing said in a statement on Tuesday.
The new agreement comes on top of the $16.6 billion deal Boeing signed with Iran under Barack Obama’s administration. Boeing has agreed to sell 80 aircraft to flag carrier IranAir under the contract.
In January, Iran signed a deal with Airbus to buy 118 jets from Airbus for an estimated €22.8 billion ($25 billion). Iranian officials later said the contract would be cut to 112 planes.
