Four African A340 jetliners end up in Iran

How even harsh sanctions against dictatorial regimes can be shamelessly circumvented, is shown by this case which happened at the end of DEC22: Just before the turn of the year, four A340-300 aircraft took off from Johannesburg, South Africa, where they had been parked for more than 2 years, and officially headed off to Uzbekistan. However, the Burkina Faso-registered jetliners XT-AKA, XT-AKB, XT-AKK, and XT-ALM never reached their destination, landing instead in Tehran.

Registration roulette
The planes once belonged to Turkish Airlines but were taken out of service and ferried to Johannesburg in early 2019. At that time, all four were registered in Guernsey, a UK tax haven, on behalf of a Hong Kong-based company called AVRO Global Limited. Strangely enough, the Hong Kong Company Register does not contain any further information about this firm. While parked at Johannesburg Airport, all four were re-registered in the African state, Burkina Faso, for reasons unknown.
After taking off in South Africa, one after the other about 2 weeks ago, and crossing the African continent, the four A340s set course for Central Asia, with flight destination Tashkent. Upon entering Iranian airspace, however, they changed direction and diverted to Tehran. Finally, all four landed at Tehran-Mehrabad International Airport where they are still believed to be.

Hassan Khoshkhou, the spokesman for Iran's Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), confirmed that the Airbus A340s had arrived in the country "in recent days." He stopped short of providing further details on how the jetliners were procured and who facilitated the purchase.

Unknown airline code
What caught the attention of aviation observers was the flight numbers used for this bizarre journey: it is an MAN airline code, writes Airspace Africa, citing a report in Dutch Scramble magazine that publishes information on civil and military aviation news. However, such an airline code does not exist. Yet, given the final destination of the jetliners, it can be assumed that it is a hint to its new owner: Iranian carrier, Mahan Air.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Mahan Air maintains close ties with Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which spearhead the Mullah-led government’s repressive political system. Numerous countries have banned the airline, including the U.S. and EU, as well as Saudi Arabia, which cited security concerns as the official reason for the move.

Clandestine transaction
Because of trade sanctions against Iran, Mahan Air is unable to purchase Western-made aircraft directly from Boeing, Airbus, or Embraer. Therefore, it obtains second-hand aircraft from the leasing market to stay afloat. Observers suspect that this is also the case with the four A340-300 jetliners. Hence, despite the stiff sanctions against Iran, it surely looks as though some clandestine transaction took place and the former Turkish A340-300s will soon receive Iranian registrations.

Heiner Siegmund

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