Page 55 - IRANRptOct19
P. 55
said production of the new Peugeot 207 would begin at its plant in Neftchala Industrial Zone in the summer.
9.2.3 Aviation corporate news
Airbus's director of public relations said on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show 2019 that Iran’s big orders for aircraft from the company have not been cancelled, IRNA has reported.
Justin Dubon said the hope was the multi-billion-euro orders for new jets placed by Iran’s flag carrier IranAir and other Iranian carriers would be fulfilled once US sanctions did not preclude delivery. The sanctions hit both Boeing and Airbus when it came to business with Iran because they also cover aircraft that are made with a significant level of US components, such as Airbus jets. “These contracts are not cancelled; they are in our portfolio. However, their implementation will be possible only after the lifting of sanctions against Iran by the United States, or if Washington will give separate special permission to supply the aircraft,” said Dubon.
Iran Air in 2016 signed an agreement with Airbus for the supply of 118 aircraft. It asked for 73 wide-body aircraft and 45 narrow-body planes. The contract included 21 aircraft of the A320ceo family and 24 of the A320neo family.
Also, Airbus received an order for 12 of its largest airliner, the A380, from IranAir.
According to data for the beginning of 2019, IranAir’s fleet features two A310s, 12 A300s, 4 Boeing 747s, 6 A320s and 16 Fokker 100s . Some of these jets are over 40 years old and are only in partial operation due to long-lasting sanctions on the country restricting routes.
Iran appointed a former airforce commander who is on a Washington blacklist as the new chief executive of IranAir on May 6.
Turaj Dehghani Zanganeh replaced Farzaneh Sharafbafi, the first Iranian woman with a PhD in aerospace and the first woman to run the airline. She was at the helm of the airline for two years.
9.2.4 TMT corporate news
Rightel, Iran’s third-largest mobile network operator and the first in the country to offer 3G, has named Mina Mehrnoush as its CEO, Zoomit.ir reported on September 15.
Mehrnoush has been tasked with tackling the ever-weakening position of Rightel versus Iran’s top two mobile operators, MTN-Irancell and Mobile Communications of Iran (Hamra-e-Avval). They have overtaken the younger Rightel by offering 4G services.
Mehrnoush holds a PhD in international economics and is a specialist in start-ups and communications technologies, the Persian language Zoomit report added. However, despite Rightel commending her impressive career to date, officials are not happy with her appointment as head of the telco.
Prior to the appointment, Iran Communications and Information Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari has said he had unspecified concerns about Mehrnoush.
“We are evaluating the experience of this lady; we have to wait to see what the outcome of the evaluation is,” he said, implying her experience in other sectors might not be suitable for the Rightel CEO position.
In another damaging blow, the Iranian Communications and Regulatory Authority (CRA), stated that it has not accepted the Rightel board of directors’ appointment of Mehrnoush, causing further complications for the operator in
55 IRAN Country Report October 2019 www.intellinews.com
