Sunday, October 17, 2010

Iran Air in Search of Fuel

The Washington Post reports today that Iran Air, the national Iranian airlines, has become unable to refuel its planes in most of European airports. Under the new EU sanctions, several major oil companies have cancelled their jet fuel delivery contracts with Iran Air. The list includes BP, Shell and Q8.

Vienna and Cologne, Germany, reportedly are the only two airports still providing fuel to the airliner. OMV of Austria has said it would continue refueling Iran Air planes until their current contract ends next month. Total of France, which delivers jet fuel in Cologne, is also not expected to renew its current contract expiring next month. That would leave Iran Air with no airport in Europe to refuel its planes.

“We will continue to fly to Europe, if needed with half occupancy to save fuel which we can bring from Tehran,” said Mohammad Jalali, Iran Air District Manager in Amsterdam. “But we are losing time, money and passengers,” he added [Washington Post, 17 October].

Photo: Iran Air Boeing 747-200 (EP-IAH) lands at London Heathrow Airport. June 2008. Photographed by Adrian Pingstone.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please please please put a reference, web link, something, at the end of your posts! Where did you get this story, EXACTLY?

Nader Uskowi said...

We do put the reference in our post: the Washington Post, Sunday 17 October 2010. We have actually started our post by saying that "The Washington Post reports today..." You can access the online version of the Post at: washpost.com

Anonymous said...

that is true, The Iran Air has problem for Refuleing of plae in Europe.
but Who cares ?
Europe is not very important for iran.
just wait a while, they will again sell Creosin to iran air.

Anonymous said...

that is some interesting news
France is going out of fuel.
no fly more to Paris
the refineries are on strike since 5-6 days

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11559265

Anonymous said...

I meant give a direct link, such as
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/16/AR2010101602968.html

Not too much to ask I think.

Amir Taheri said...

It will be interesting to see if this problem truly comes to pass in a few months if Iran Air will transfer some of its routes to Mahan Air an airline that has more planes ready to fly to Europe and offers better service than Iran Air. It recently bought around 13 airbus planes from Lufthansa and can quickly fill in the gap by Iran Air. That all being said, even though Mahan Air is a private airline it too could come under pressure in the future as the the US and Europe do not seem to be keeping to their word of not targeting civilians. The no plane and parts rule is a perfect example where the US has directly targeted the safety, security, and availability at all of Iranians to travel without having the fear of perishing. There are plans to go to the Hague Court on this matter as travel is a basic human right of all peoples. I encourage the Iranian government to follow through with this and urge us all as a civilized people regardless of our politics to protest in any way we can this discriminatory and human rights violation.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Amir, my thoughts exactly. What happened to the pledge not to target civilians through sanctions? The West, reliably unreliable till the end. See how they've tried to demonize Turkey, if they do that to a NATO state and ally, and a key energy hub, what will they do to Iran? Turkey's place is the dog house, Iran's the sh*thouse.

Anonymous said...

what is happening in France is somehow a form of Poetic Justice, with every plane going there carrying its fuel with it.

The anti Sarkozy and his wife slogans are very refreshing here in Paris

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