Iran's aviation agency has banned overflights of Boeing 737 Max from its airspace, following two air disasters in a span of five months.
"A ... ban on the passage of the Boeing Max aircraft through Iran's skies has been issued as has been the case with other countries," Reza Jafarzadeh, head of public relations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency on Friday, March 15.
Iran itself has experienced many fatal air crashes in the past two decades as it has been banned from buying new and advanced Western planes due to various sanctions. It has relied on older used aircraft, many former Soviet models.
After the end of last round of international sanction in 2016, Iran inked preliminary agreements with Boeing and Airbus to buy dozens of planes, but with the coming of President Donald Trump’s administration and new U.S. sanctions no deliveries were made.
