TEHRAN- Iran’s national flag-carrier airline Iran Air has signed a contract to buy 20 ATR 72-600 from the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer and four planes of the kind will be delivered to the country in 15 days, Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan announced on Monday.

As he added, nine of the accorded planes will be delivered to Iran by the end of 2017 and the rest will arrive in 2018, IRNA reported.
Representatives of ATR traveled to Iran in early February to negotiate terms of a deal for the sale of at least 20 aircrafts.
Iran Air finalized a deal on the purchase of the aircrafts with ATR in mid-February. 
On February 4, Fakhrieh Kashan said the value of the deal is about $400 million.
Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi announced in mid-January that renovation of the fleet of Iran Air has begun, adding that according to the contracts with world major plane makers, Iran Air is to receive 200 new planes, of which 100 will be purchased from Airbus and 80 from Boeing.
The first, second and third planes that Iran has purchased from the European aviation giant Airbus landed in Tehran on January 12, March 11, and March 25,  2017, respectively.
Also, the first Boeing 777 airplane will be delivered to Iran within a month, Mehr news agency reported on Sunday, quoting Fakhrieh Kashan.

HJ/MA