Mehr News Agency, Iran
Sept 23 2005
Armenia negotiating purchase of Iran-140 aircraft
TEHRAN, Sept. 23 (MNA) – Iran Aircraft Mfg. Company (HESA) is
negotiating with Armenia over the sale of 3 Iran-140 turboprop
aircrafts, executive director of HESA Abbas Fallah announced on
Thursday. However, there has been no actual demand or solid proposal
for purchase of this plane by domestic airlines due to their more
conventional view of employing jet planes and the prestige that is
associated with it, he added.
It seems that Iranian airliners prefer to buy or lease even used jets
for awhile in order to move more passengers from point A to B, while
Iran-140 offers certain advantages that compensates for the larger
capacity of jet planes and presents the buyers with more
profitability in the long run. For example, although due to its
technical specifications, the travel time takes longer with Iran-140
but, passenger boarding time is 7 minutes shorter than with the
larger jets. So, overall, a given trip requires less time by this
turboprop.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Fallah indicated that the production
capacity of Iran-140 is projected to be 32 to 40 planes by the end of
the 4th Socio-economic and Cultural Development Plan if adequate
market support is offered.
As to the criticisms set forth on having such a plane in Iranian
fleet, he maintained that the turboprop consumes 500 to 600 kgs of
fuel per hour compared to 2.2 tons of Fokker 100’s consumption. In
other words, this is 2 times more hourly fuel consumption per
passenger for the 100. Moreover, the 140 is designed for the
country’s wide ranges of climates and the tests performed testify to
this matter. For instance, most planes have landing and take-off
problems at Khorramabad Airport, whereas despite some limitations
140, like any other plane, performs the tasks with ease and
competence.
He also stated that the contract to sell 3 Iran-140s at the cost of
$27m to Sudan will soon be going into effect and HESA would be also
receiving $3m to offer necessary services and support for maintenance
and personnel training for a year.