Without prior notice, Airbus removed nearly 100 pending orders placed by Iran Air from its backlog in December.
Until then, the Iranian carrier appeared in the monthly report with 106 firm orders, of which only nine were delivered – eight A300s and one A321.
The remaining 97 aircraft were part of an agreement reached in 2016 amid the lifting of US-led trade sanctions on the Iranian government.
However, shortly afterwards, the country was retaliated against again and orders were put on hold.
Owner of a very aged and inefficient fleet, Iran Air took advantage of the short window to order jets of various sizes. There were six A320ceo, eight A321ceo, eight A330-200 in addition to modern aircraft such as 32 A320neo, 28 A330-900 and 16 A350-1000.
Of these, only one A321 was delivered, in addition to two A330-200s that had been manufactured for the bankrupt airline Avianca Brasil and not delivered. The two widebody aircraft were not written off from Iran Air’s orders.
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The impact of the update was quite large for Airbus’ order backlog in 2023, which had 225 canceled aircraft, 43% of Iran Air’s frustrated order alone.
However, as the European planemaker had huge orders during the year that culminated in a net balance of over 2,000 aircraft, the change was barely noticed.
