Lufthansa, which recently signed an agreement with Iran Air to increase cooperation between the two companies, is considering selling some of its Airbus A340-300s to the Iranian flag carrier.
Lufthansa is taking delivery of 52 new aircraft this year, including two A350 XWBs that will replace the older A340s.
“Iran Air needs support—which had been denied [because of sanctions]. We are looking at whether Iran Air is perhaps a customer to take those planes from Lufthansa. The A340s will be exchanged one-to-one by the A350s,” Lufthansa chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr told analysts and reporters in Frankfurt on Thursday.
Earlier this year, Iran signed major deals for the acquisition of Airbus and ATR aircraft. Because of sanctions, Iran has an older civil aviation fleet and has experienced several fatal crashes in recent years.
“We will be renewing 9% of our fleet within the course of this year. From these 52 aircraft, there are 29 Airbus A320s, five A320neos and the rest are A320ceos.”
Source: http://atwonline.com/airframes/lufthansa-may-sell-a340-300s-iran-air
