The signature of the deal follows the commercial discussions held in the last days in Rome and Paris, on the occasion of the visit of the President of Iran, H.E. Mr. Hassan Rohani, and the Minister of Transportation of Iran, Mr. Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi.

During the negotiations, the Italian and French states played an important role to achieve the signing of this deal, through the participation of their export credit agencies, respectively Sace and Coface.

The deal marks the arrival of the newest generation ATRs in Iran, where the first aircraft have been operating since 1992. This freshly open market provides a strong potential for the development and expansion of domestic traffic and routes.

The ATR aircraft are the bestselling below-90-seats regional aircraft worldwide in recent years. They operate successfully in very different environments, including small airfields, unpaved runways and mountainous regions.

Patrick de Castelbajac, Chief Executive Officer of ATR, declared: “We are honored to take part in this new era in Iran by providing the national airline with aircraft that will strongly contribute to reinforce and boost regional transportation across the country. We are pleased to offer to the passengers of Iran Air the highest standards of comfort and reliability, as well as the outstanding operational flexibility of the ATR 72-600s”.