Secret Purchase of Government Aircraft by Company Affiliated with Khamenei

A note by Babak Taghvaei: The flight of two unidentified aircraft over Iranian airspace and the disabling of their position transmitters before landing near Tehran in the early morning of the 25th of July 2021 (3rd of Mordad 1400) caught the attention of this writer to investigate the identification of these aircraft.

The investigations revealed that the aircraft in question were the last two of six Hawker 400XP executive aircraft purchased by Mahan Airline, which according to statements from one of the company’s former employees, were brought into the country at the order of the Ghardian Investment Company affiliated with Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic regime, and also close to the Cooperative Foundation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mahan Airline established a shell company in the country of Burundi in Africa to purchase and import these aircraft into Iran, and while receiving national registration marks (such as 9U-TKR and 9U-TKN) for them, under the Air Operator’s Certificate issued by the civil aviation authority of this small country, it was able to gradually import them into Iran over three weeks.

To keep the purchase and delivery process of these aircraft secret, their entry took place in the middle of the night, and Mahan Airline employees immediately upon landing painted over the Burundian registration marks in white to conceal them.

Another measure to keep the purchase of the Hawker 400XP aircraft by Mahan Air secret was storing these aircraft at four different airports in Tehran, Isfahan, Zahedan and Mashhad.

Of the six aircraft, three are stationed at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. Their storage location was initially at the customs ramp of the airport, but given the traffic of employees from other airlines near them, there was a risk of the aircraft’s identity being exposed, so it was decided to move them on August 2nd, 2021 (11th of Mordad) to the Fokker 27 ramp of the Army Air Force in the south of Mehrabad Airport.

For years, airlines, particularly Mahan Air, have taken complex measures to circumvent sanctions and purchase passenger aircraft. Compared to the airline’s previous purchases, the acquisition of six Hawker 400XP aircraft for the Ghardian Investment Company is the most complex of its kind.

Previously, over the past 15 years, the company had imported a total of five executive aircraft of three types—business jets, narrow-body and wide-body aircraft—into Iran; aircraft that, in addition to being used by Islamic Republic officials, were used by Quds Force commanders during official flights to Iraq and Syria.

History of Mahan Airline in Purchasing Executive Aircraft and Leasing to Quds Force

This is not the first time that small executive aircraft known as business jets have been purchased and transferred to Iran.

In 2019, a company affiliated with the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards purchased one Bombardier CRJ-200LR executive aircraft for use by an airline called Pars Air. This aircraft entered Mehrabad Airport on March 3rd, 2020 with one stop in Gazanj, Russia and one stop in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

Mahan Airline is also one of the oldest importers of executive aircraft to Iran. In September 2016, the company purchased one Cessna 525A CitationJet CJ2 manufactured in the United States from a German company through an Armenian intermediary company and imported it into Iran.

However, Mahan Air was never able to obtain the necessary permits to operate this seven-seater executive aircraft due to security issues, and as a result, the aircraft remained unused in the company’s possession for years and was only operated in the summer of the current year to train future pilots of the Hawker 400 executive aircraft purchased by Mahan.

After Mahan’s failure to obtain a permit to operate small executive jet aircraft, the company proceeded to purchase larger executive aircraft. Everything started with the purchase of a wide-body aircraft Airbus A310-304, the former aircraft of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in 2011.

Mahan’s goal was to lease this aircraft to government organizations to conduct their executive flights. In this regard, the company achieved only modest successes in leasing this aircraft to the Islamic Republic regime for executive flights.

Two years after its arrival in Iran, it received the national registration mark EP-MMX and was finally used on February 14th, 2014 for the flight of the nuclear negotiation team from Tehran to Vienna.

After that, on April 20th, 2014, this aircraft was used for Ayatollah Hashemi’s family flight from Tehran to Kish Island. About two months later, on May 21st, 2014, Hassan Rouhani used this aircraft for a flight to Shanghai and participation in the fourth summit of SICA leaders.

The purchase of the wide-body aircraft Airbus A340 by Meraj Airline for use by the Islamic Republic’s presidential fleet for long-distance travels by Islamic Republic regime officials caused the Airbus A310-304 executive aircraft, previously owned by the German Air Force, to remain unused at Mahan Air. Eventually, the company was able to use this aircraft for the last time in February and March 2014 for several Quds Force missions.

On February 19th, 2014, this aircraft was used due to its additional fuel tanks and capability for direct non-stop flights from Tehran to Sanaa to transport Quds Force commanders and quasi-military Houthi officials.

Flights of this aircraft to Yemen continued and eventually met with a negative reaction from the Saudi Arabian government, to the extent that on May 7th, 2015, to prevent its landing at Sanaa International Airport, first two F-15C fighter jets of the Saudi Royal Air Force intercepted it over Yemen and, by warning the pilot Behzad Sedaqatnia, attempted to prevent him from flying to Sanaa, and finally after his disregard, the airfield runways and control tower were bombed by several other Saudi fighter jets.

After that, this aircraft was no longer used by Quds Force and was grounded and converted into a source of spare parts.

Although Mahan Air was unsuccessful in leasing the Airbus A310-304 executive aircraft, the former aircraft of the German Chancellor, to the Islamic Republic regime, by purchasing narrow-body and short-range executive aircraft of the type BAe-146-200 and also RJ-85 English aircraft, it managed to attract the attention of many Islamic Republic officials and even the current commander of Quds Force, Ismail Qaani, to the extent that he used one BAe-146-200 executive aircraft of this company with national registration mark EP-MMV on several occasions during his official travels to Iraq.

One of those travels took place on April 1st, 2020. Subsequently, the disclosure of Brigadier Ismail Qaani’s use of the EP-MMV aircraft on that trip by this writer led to a temporary suspension of Quds Force’s use of Mahan Air’s executive aircraft for their official travels to Iraq.

The success of Mahan Air’s BAe-156 and RJ-85 aircraft in attracting the attention of Islamic Republic government officials led to a third aircraft of this type being purchased in 2019. This aircraft with the Kyrgyz national registration mark EX-27009 along with two other aircraft of the same type but with passenger cabin, were purchased through a Kyrgyz intermediary company called TezJet and entered Iran on January 24th, 2020.

This aircraft was previously used by the President of Uzbekistan until 2013 and was used for regional trips and neighboring countries. After necessary periodic maintenance and preparation at Mahan Airline’s maintenance facility at Khomeini Airport, this aircraft became operational and received the national registration mark EP-MMS in 2020.

Does Ghardian Investment Company Have a Similar Plan for Using Hawker 400 Executive Aircraft?

Based on information released by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Ghardian Investment Company is the most important financial institution belonging to or at least affiliated with the leader of the Islamic Republic regime. In this regard, in 2013, the company was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury; sanctions that were lifted following the nuclear agreement known as JCPOA and allowed the company to enter into several important international commercial contracts for two years.

However, it was not long before the company, as one of the first and most important financial institutions of the Islamic Republic regime and its leader, again on November 4th, 2018 faced severe U.S. Treasury Department sanctions.

The use of Mahan Airline by Ghardian Investment Company, which itself has been under severe U.S. sanctions for years due to its ownership stake by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and for providing its aircraft for the transfer of weapons and Quds Force personnel to Syria, has raised serious concerns about the type and manner of use of the Hawker 400 executive aircraft.

In this regard, this writer interviewed one of the consultants and implementers of the purchase of six executive aircraft for use by an air services company belonging to Ghardian, on condition of anonymity. He, who for years has harbored the dream of establishing and reviving the air taxi industry in Iran, claimed that the purchase of the aircraft in question was carried out for the purpose of transporting Iranian and foreign merchants and entrepreneurs and also medical tourism to transport wealthy patients from foreign countries to Iran for treatment.

When this writer asked him about Ghardian Company’s connection to Ali Khamenei’s office, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, he refused to continue the interview.

A former manager of Mahan Airline who is now working for one of Iran’s airlines also, on condition of anonymity, told this writer about the possible use of the Hawker 400XP aircraft purchased by Mahan Air that these aircraft along with only Mahan Air’s Cessna Citation are to be transferred to a company called Ghardian Air Services that is under the management of several former Islamic Revolutionary Guards commanders, including the former commander of Qader Air Base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, to be used for the transportation of military commanders and officials of the Islamic Republic regime.

He also added that over the past 42 years, due to security issues, no airline has been granted a permit to conduct air taxi operations, and Iran’s first air taxi company since the revolution named Shahin Bal Parvaaz belonging to Mohammad Reza Ekhteyaz, a former manager of Aseman Airlines, was not permitted to operate due to limitations imposed by the Guards Aviation Protection, and ultimately in 2015 its air taxi operations were suspended.

For years, Mahan Air, despite partial ownership by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has been unable to obtain the necessary permit to launch air taxi services for security reasons. Obtaining such a permit by Ghardian Investment Company indicates the high level of influence of its managers and the likely use of executive aircraft in the future to transport Islamic Republic officials and Islamic Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Source: Radio Farda