With Iran Air's overnight order for 112 planes including 12 A380-800's, it would appear we are looking at a major expansion of this carrier's international route network.

With Iran Air's overnight order for 112 planes including 12 A380-800's, it would appear we are looking at a major expansion of this carrier's international route network.

Iran Air is also rumoured to be looking towards ordering a similar number of Boeing aircraft, so this is no idle 'pie in the sky' expansion.

IR is looking at resuming US flights and continues to fly to LHR and CDG. Any thoughts on where Iran Air could expand to internationally?

Sure, why not SYD and AKL. Everyone else is.

Yeah, Auckland might need a second runway if all this goes ahead.

Who on earth would want to fly them??

I would think that the pent up demand (due to 2 decades of santions) of 80 million Iranians might be a good start for a local market. That's about 4 times the market size of Australia.

And certainly, Iran Air has continued to operate to many cities in the EU including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Geneva, Rome etc as well as Ankara, Moscow, Beijing, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai etc. So, they've had lots of favourable market exposure over the years.

Their population is about 4 times the size of us but their commercial avaiation economy is a very similar size. There's either room for growth or a whole lot less of a reliance on air travel as this little old island.

My guess is they're looking to open up Iran to the world and probably follow the ME3 carriers into a large hub and spoke model. Iran is an interesting country, I'd like to see it.

Can't help but think 12 A380's will be overkill. They wouldn't be my first choice of Airline.

Why wouldn't you want to fly them? Especially with new aircraft (though it would be a treat to fly the 747SP and A300).

If they can codeshare on an Asian airlines flights to Australia they'll be another one stop choice for people going to Tehran (besides QR, EK, EY).

Iran is now back in favour with the western world and business is about to boom there. A number of multinational companies have announced plans just this week.There will be a lot of people heading therefor business. Iran air used to have a terrific reputation for service prior to the revolution. 12 a380s is probably a bit of an overkill but look at how many Emirates has! Tehran may takeover traffic from Dubai given the delays being experienced at Dubai's airports. Not that far apart. It was a major Qantas port in the 70s.

Not many leisure travellers would be willing to stop over in Iran for a few days (From who I know, everyone still thinks its a warzone/unsafe) Maybe a short stop in Iran for refuel then off to EU or other destinations I would consider them. They will have to pick up their standard though

Iran is actually the flavour of the month for many leisure travellers at the monent, and has always been a safe country

[Redacted by admin - off topic, generalisation]

Clearly AUSBT isn't the place for a geo-political debate but keep in mind this deal is indicative of Iran deciding to come back and play nice with the world. A relative who travelled through the region 50+ years ago as a single white female always comments that Iran was where she felt the safest - it's an incredible part of the world and one that doesn't deserve to be denigrated because of decades of [redacted] rule...

Hi Mark, please be reminded of AusBT's published comment policy, specifically the sections about remaining on-topic and avoiding 'attacks' on other people (which includes generalisations about classes of people or of those who visit particular destinations).

Cheers and happy Friday. :)

Hmm, OK...I thought you might let some of it slide through...but point taken and I'll seek to behave going forward...

No worries! Personally I'd love to fly Iran Air our of pure curiosity, as long as flying through Tehran or other Iranian cities didn't have implications on which countries I can visit in the future.