Tupolev 214 Aircraft Will Do

With sanction cloud hanging over Iran by the western allies against the alleged nuclear enrichment project, Iran will do with Russian aircraft although it might be not up to western standard.

Iran's national airliner Iran Air will buy five Tupolev (Above Photo: Tupolev 214)passenger planes from Russia to meet high demand for domestic flights, Iran's state broadcaster said on Wednesday.

"Iran Air has various plans to complete its fleet and is to buy five Tupolev 214 passenger planes," Managing Director Saeed Hessami was quoted as saying on the web site of state broadcaster IRIB.

"The deposit has been prepared for transfer to the (Ilyushin Finance) company and they (the aircraft) will gradually join the fleet," Hessami said without giving any financial details on the deal.

Hessami did not mention any other plans to buy Tupolev planes from Russia.

In Moscow on Monday, a source with knowledge of the deal said Iran had started talks to buy 30 Russian Tupolev 204 passenger aircraft worth more than USD$1 billion.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the deal was likely to be reached by the end of the year.

Government-owned Iran Air operates a fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes, while its Iran Air Tours subsidiary flies Tupolev 154 planes. Iran's airline sector has been under US sanctions for almost three decades, preventing it from buying new US planes or spare parts.

So, what else you can do if you're under that circumstances.