Iran's huge jet orders signal ambition to join airline elite

London

IRAN'S signing this week of an outline deal for 109 Boeing Co jetliners five months after agreeing to buy 118 from Airbus Group SE underscores the scale of the former state's airline ambitions.

The purchase of almost 230 planes would create a fleet three-quarters the size of that at British Airways and larger than the current line-up at Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, one of three Persian Gulf carriers that transformed air travel in the years Iran was stymied by trade sanctions linked to its nuclear programme.