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Iran
said earlier this week that it had finalised the deal, which is
roughly split equally between narrow body and wide body
aircraft.
The first of the Airbus jets should be delivered in mid-January,
part of plans to buy or lease 200 planes to renew IranAir's
decaying fleet, against a backdrop of conservative criticism in
Washington and Tehran of last year's international deal to allow
such business after decades of sanctions.
Sanctions were lifted in January but were followed by months of
regulatory delays, and Iran has only just finalised a deal to
buy 80 jets from Airbus' U.S. rival Boeing <BA.N>.
The timetable suggests the first Airbus A321 could arrive before
the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump,
who has opposed the deal to lift most sanctions on Iran in
exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities, and well ahead of
Iranian presidential elections in May next year.
That could provide a boost to the government of President Hassan
Rouhani and allow Airbus to find a home for some jets abandoned
or deferred by other customers due to economic problems in South
America and elsewhere, analysts say.
Airbus shares were down 0.8 percent in mid-session trading, with
the stock up by around 1 percent since the start of 2016.
In October, Airbus Group posted lower than expected
third-quarter profits, although the company broadly maintained
its full-year financial forecasts.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Maya Nikolaeva and Sudip
Kar-Gupta)
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