copied this from http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/1915893/. I have not found a reliable source to confirm/deny this story. Hopefully this will be possible. The F70 (with RR engines) is one of the few planes that Iran can buy without breaking the US embargo. Iran Air already operates the F100.
TEHRAN (Dow Jones)–Iran has signed a $980 million contract with a Dutch aircraft manufacturing company for the delivery of 25 Fokker-70 passenger planes to the Iranian commercial aviation fleet, state-run Iran Radio reported Thursday.
The contract was signed by the state Simorgh airline company on the sidelines of an international air show on the Persian Gulf island of Kish.
Deliveries of the twin-engine, 80-seat aircraft will start in 2007, the report said. No additional information on the contract was provided.
Fokker is now owned by Netherlands-based Stork NV (39066.AE) but no longer makes complete aircraft with the last Fokker-70 built in the mid-1990s. Rekkof Aircraft NV, also of the Netherlands, is aiming to restart production of the Fokker 70 and currently has a delegation in Iran, according to a company official. He couldn’t confirm whether Simorgh had ordered the planes. A Stork spokesman said Rekkof would need an agreement with Stork before it
could restart production of the aircraft.
The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization there said there about 80 aircraft in the country’s commercial aviation fleet and the sector is in need of an additional 80 planes. However, due to ongoing U.S. sanctions, Iran’s commercial aviation industry has been unable to repair or replace its fleet.
To meet its immediate requirement as part of its drive to modernize and develop its aging fleet, Iran is in need of 60 new aircraft. According to an official of the Civil Aviation Organization Iran purchased around 15 second-hand aircraft in the past year.
-By Hashem Kalantari, Dow Jones Newswires, +9821 896 6230 (Rod Stone in
London contributed to this article)
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January 20, 2005 at 6:46 pm