Iran Air’s landmark agreement for 100 Airbus aircraft has been scrubbed from the airframer’s backlog, its year-end figures reveal.
The Iranian flag-carrier placed the order in 2016 after sanctions were eased as part of a political agreement over the government’s nuclear energy programme.
Iran Air ordered 98 jets including 16 A350-1000s and 28 A330-900s, as well as eight A330-200s, along with 32 A320neos, eight A321s and six A320s.
The carrier was also assigned a pair of A330-200s which had originally been delivered to Avianca but not put into service.
But while the two A330-200s and a single new A321 were delivered to the Tehran-based airline, the remaining 97 aircraft have remained on the backlog after political tensions between the US and Iranian governments re-emerged in 2018.
Airbus’s newly-released year-end backlog figures for 2023 show that all 97 remaining aircraft assigned to Iran Air have been struck off.
This adjustment for Iran Air accounts for over 40% of the 225 cancellations recorded by Airbus last year. It particularly affects the net order total for the A330neo family, which fell to eight aircraft.
