Airbus cancels delivery of 100 aircraft to Iran

Iran’s national carrier, Iran Air, is no longer expecting nearly 100 aircraft from Airbus as they have reportedly been omitted from the manufacturer’s order backlog.

The development is allegedly indicated in the European aircraft maker’s year-end figures, Simple Flying reports.

The aircraft have been listed in Airbus’ order books for over five years. However, the latest change reportedly pushed the number of the company’s order cancellations to over 220.

The orders reportedly needed approval from the US government due to the technology onboard the planes. Some officials contended that Iran could use the aircraft to transport weapons and troops. Although Airbus is based outside of the US, the company still needed approval from the US Treasury Department to deliver aircraft to Iran because at least 10 per cent of the materials used to develop its planes are American-made.

Out of the 100 jets, only two A330-200s and one A321 were delivered to the carrier due to political tensions between Iran and the US resurfacing in 2018. Since then, the remaining 97 planes have been included in Airbus’ order backlog – until the end of 2023.

Airbus shared its 2023 commercial aircraft orders and delivery figures on January 17. According to FlightGlobal, all 97 remaining aircraft assigned to Iran Air are no longer included in the backlog of orders. It represents more than 40 per cent of order cancellations Airbus recorded last year, which were 225.