With new U.S. sanctions now starting to bite, Iran’s airlines are being forced to return to old habits by patching up their ageing planes rather than firing up the engines on newer models.

After the signing of the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 and the lifting of most international sanctions on the country in January 2016, Iranian airlines jumped at the chance to renew their decrepit fleets. They placed orders for tens of billions of dollars’ worth of new aircraft, with large contracts signed with Boeing, Airbus and ATR.

However, just a handful of the 300 planes that were ordered were delivered before Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions. With that, the chances of new deliveries have dwindled, as has the ability to easily buy spare parts.

Instead of taking delivery of modern aircraft, it seems that local airlines are now having to patch up older planes in their fleet. Iranian media reported earlier this month that Iran Air had overhauled one of its Airbus A300 aircraft following the technical failure of one of its engines.

Iran Air has around a dozen A300 aircraft in its fleet, one of which has been converted to a freighter. Overall, the planes have an average age of close to 33 years, according to Airfleets.net. Only 23 other airlines around the world still operate this type of aircraft, including a number of other carriers in Iran such as Mahan Air, Meraj Airlines and Qeshm Air.

There are some 250 aircraft in Iran’s civil aviation fleet, but around 100 of them have been grounded and either placed in storage or stripped for spare parts. The Iranian Labour News Agency cited Iran Air CEO Farzaneh Sharafbafi as saying that the condition of Iran’s civil aviation industry is now worse than Afghanistan’s or Iraq’s as a result of the new U.S. sanctions.

The strategy of patching up planes is also one that the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) has been forced to adopt. Last month it unveiled what it claimed was a new, domestically-produced fighter jet, although observers quickly noted the plane’s close resemblance to the F-5 designed by U.S. defence firm Northrop in the 1950s.

IRIAF officials frequently laud their ability to overhaul aging fighter jets in their fleet, boasting about the thousands of man-hours spent to keep old F-4, F-5, F-14, Mirage and Su-22 fighter jets air-worthy.

As well as having to fly on old aircraft domestically, Iranian passengers are also now finding their options more limited when flying overseas. In recent weeks, a string of international airlines, including Air France, British Airways and KLM, have said they are halting services to Iran as they are no long commercially viable.

Source » forbes