The excitement of trading with Iran’s airlines is bringing OEMs some uncertainty. This is going to be unwelcome to suppliers who dislike adding uncertainty to an already uncertain industry.
Let’s start with Superjet. News from Iran now suggests the SSJ is not going to be welcomed in Iran. The Association of Iranian Airlines is the source, and to see the comment from that source as saying “the plane is not well-known to Iranian airline companies” is fatuous. Virtually every modern commercial aircraft is unknown to Iran’s airlines and the SSJ issue has been fixed. Then to ascribe concern about the recent technical fix after saying as recently as December 10th that Iranian airlines were interested in buying the SSJ is perplexing.
Meanwhile ATR is about to sign a finalize its deal with Iran this week and the first aircraft looks ready for delivery. The first Iran Air A321 is to be delivered, apparently, on January 22. Boeing’s deal with Iran is firmed, but has yet to show up on Boeing’s O&D database. Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development, has gone on record saying Iran was negotiating with Embraer. The only source talking about Bombardier in Iran has been Bombardier.
There are two voices that speak for Iranian airlines: the Secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines, Maqsoud Asadi Samani. Also, Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development. We will need to be paying attention to them and try to figure out what they are saying and what it means. It would be most helpful, for a start, if the Association of Iranian Airlines could provide an English version of its website.
Co-Founder AirInsight. My previous life includes stints at Shell South Africa, CIC Research, and PA Consulting. Got bitten by the aviation bug and ended up an Avgeek. Then the data bug got me, making me a curious Avgeek seeking data-driven logic. Also, I appreciate conversations with smart people from whom I learn so much. Summary: I am very fortunate to work with and converse with great people.
SSJ issue (-s) is/are far from fixed! As a customer I would actively choose alternatives if/when such exist: amount of power down/restarts required before departure are alarming to me. If the problem is software, it should have been fixed by now. If that is hardware, it eventually leads to AOG (ask those flying SU frequently) and thus, in my eyes, the A/C has a problem with reliability. If that is the case, how can a restart be sufficient for clearing the error? Again software isn’t good enough? Therefore I don’t blame airlines for not considering SSJ, if anything it explains why CityJet (WX) doesn’t deploy their brand new planes to scheduled routes, but rather use as spare/charter capacity.