Iran’s Mammoth Jet Orders Signal Ambition to Join Airline Elite
- Deal to buy more than 100 Boeing planes follows Airbus accord
- Fleet of latest models would put flag-carrier in big leagues
An employee works on a Boeing Co. 737 MAX airplane on the production line at the company's manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Boeing Co.'s latest 737 airliner is gliding through development with little notice, and that may be the plane's strongest selling point. The single-aisle 737 family is the company's largest source of profit, and the planemaker stumbled twice earlier this decade with tardy debuts for its wide-body 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 jumbo jet.
Photographer: David Ryder/BloombergIran’s signing this week of an outline deal for 109 Boeing Co. jetliners five months after agreeing to buy 118 from Airbus Group SE underscores the scale of the former pariah state’s airline ambitions.
The purchase of almost 230 planes would create a fleet three-quarters the size of that at British Airways and larger than the current lineup at Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, one of three Persian Gulf carriers that transformed air travel in the years Iran was stymied by trade sanctions linked to its nuclear program.