TEHRAN- Iranian Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi announced that Airbus officials will travel to Iran by the end of August to finalize the aircraft purchase deal, ISNA reported on Thursday.

Since the financing issues have been concluded with Airbus, the deal is probable to be finalized within a few days, Akhoundi said.
As he added, officials from Boeing have also visited Iran and negotiations are underway with them to supply Iran with its ordered aircrafts. 
“We plan to make purchases by the end of 2016 and we hope that the two aircraft manufacturers can receive the required permit form Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to provide us with our ordered 118 aircrafts from Boeing and 108 ones from Airbus,” he explained.
The Iran Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has insisted that recently announced deals with the world’s two big aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, can still go ahead, despite strong opposition to the deals from some U.S. politicians.
Reza Ja’farzadeh, a senior spokesman for the ICAO, said in late July that although no formal contracts have been signed, all sides remain committed to the undertakings they have given, according to remarks reported by IRNA news agency. 
He added that the Ministry of Transport and Urban Development and the Foreign Ministry were together working on the issue.
Iranian airlines need to buy around 500 planes over the next ten years to replace their ageing fleets and to take advantage of the expected growth in air travel in the coming years. 
Iranian carriers currently own a 250-strong fleet, but at least 100 of their planes have either broken down or been stripped for spare parts.
In January, Airbus agreed to sell aircrafts to Iran in a deal worth $27 billion. That was followed in June by Boeing tentatively agreeing to sell planes to Iran Air, in a deal worth $17.6 billion at list prices.
Farhad Parvaresh, the managing director of Iran Air, told Fars news agency on July 17 that the airline is hoped to finalize the deal with Airbus and another smaller deal with France’s ATR by the end of August. The first planes could be delivered by the end of the year.

HJ/MA