Secret purchase of ceremonial aircraft by Khamenei-affiliated company
A note from Babak Taghvai: The flight of two unidentified aircraft over the skies of Iran and the switching off of their position transmitters before landing near Tehran on the morning of July 25, 2021, attracted the attention of the author of this article to investigate their identity.
The results of the investigation showed that the planes in question are the last two of six ceremonial Hawker 400XP planes purchased by Mahan Airlines, which, according to one of its former employees, were imported into the country at the order of the Ghadir Investment Company, affiliated with Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic regime, and also close to the Revolutionary Guards Cooperative Foundation.
In order to purchase and import these aircraft to Iran, Mahan Airlines registered a shell company in Burundi, Africa, and while receiving its national registration marks (for example, 9U-TKR and 9U-TKN) for them under the Air Operator's Certificate of the company in question and issued by the Supreme Aviation Authority of this small country, it was finally able to gradually import them to Iran in three weeks.
To keep the purchase and delivery process of these planes secret, their arrival took place at midnight, and as soon as the planes landed, Mahan Company employees hid the Burundian registration marks by painting them white.
Another measure taken to keep the purchase of Hawker 400 XP aircraft by Mahan Air secret is to store these aircraft at four different airports in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Zahedan, and Mashhad.
Of the six aircraft, three are at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport. They were initially stored at the airport's customs ramp, but due to the frequent movement of airline employees near them, there was a possibility that the aircraft's identity would be revealed, so it was decided to transfer them to the ramp of the 27th Fokker Battalion of the Iranian Air Force south of Mehrabad Airport on August 2, 2021.
For years, airlines, especially Mahan Air, have been using sophisticated measures to circumvent sanctions and purchase passenger aircraft. Compared to Mahan Air’s past purchases, the purchase of six Hawker 400 XPs for Ghadir Investment Company is the most complex of its kind.
Previously, in the past 15 years, this company has imported a total of five ceremonial aircraft into Iran in three types: business jets, narrow-body and wide-body; aircraft that, in addition to being used by Islamic Republic officials, have also been used by Quds Force commanders during official flights to Iraq and Syria.
Mahan Airlines' history in purchasing ceremonial aircraft and leasing them to the Quds Force
This is not the first time that light ceremonial aircraft called Business Jets have been purchased and transferred to Iran.
In 2019, a company affiliated with the IRGC Aerospace Force purchased a Bombardier CRJ-200LR ceremonial aircraft for use by an airline called Pars Airkish. The aircraft arrived at Mehrabad Airport on March 3, 2020, with one stop in Kazan, Russia, and one stop in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Mahan Air is one of the oldest importers of ceremonial aircraft to Iran. In September 2016, the company purchased a US-made Cessna 525A CitationJet CJ2 from a German company through an Armenian intermediary company and imported it into Iran.
Of course, Mahan Air was never able to obtain the necessary permits to use this seven-seater ceremonial aircraft due to security issues, and as a result, the aircraft remained unused in the company's possession for years, and only became operational this summer after a long time, and was used to train future pilots of the Hawker 400 ceremonial aircraft purchased by Mahan.
After Mahan failed to obtain a license to operate light ceremonial jets, the company began purchasing larger ceremonial aircraft. It all started with the purchase of the Airbus A310-304 wide-body aircraft of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011.
Mahan's goal was to lease the aircraft to government organizations for ceremonial flights. In this regard, the company has only had a handful of successes in leasing the aircraft to the Islamic Republic regime for ceremonial flights.
Two years after its arrival in Iran, it received the national registration marks EP-MMX, and finally, on March 15, 2013, the aircraft was used to fly the nuclear negotiating team from Tehran to Vienna.
After that, on April 1, 2014, the plane was used to fly Ayatollah Hashemi's family from Tehran to Kish Island. About two months later, on May 21, 2014, Hassan Rouhani used the plane to fly to Shanghai to attend the fourth CICA summit.
The purchase of the Airbus A340 wide-body aircraft by Meraj Airlines for use by the Islamic Republic's hangar for long-distance travel by officials of the Islamic Republic's regime caused the former ceremonial Airbus A310-304 of the German Air Force to become unused at Mahan Air, and ultimately the company was able to use this aircraft for the last time in March 2014 and April 2015 for several Quds Force missions.
This aircraft was used on March 2, 2014, to transport Quds Force commanders and Houthi militia officials due to its extra fuel tanks and ability to fly directly and non-stop from Tehran to Sanaa.
The plane continued to fly to Yemen and eventually faced a negative reaction from the Saudi government, to the point that on May 29, 2015, in order to prevent it from landing at Sanaa International Airport, two Royal Saudi Air Force F-15C interceptors intercepted it over Yemen and tried to prevent its pilot, Behzad Sedaghatnia, from flying to Sanaa. Ultimately, after he ignored the warning, the airport's runways and control tower were bombed by a number of other Saudi fighter jets.
After that, the aircraft was no longer used by the Quds Force and was grounded and became a source of spare parts.
Although Mahan Air was not successful in leasing the former ceremonial Airbus A310-304 of the German Chancellor to the Islamic Republic regime, by purchasing slim, short-range ceremonial aircraft such as the BAe-146-200 and the British RJ-85, it was able to attract the attention of many officials of the Islamic Republic and even the current commander of the Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, to the point that he used a ceremonial BAe-146-200 aircraft of the company with the national registration EP-MMV on several occasions during his official trips to Iraq.
One of those trips took place on April 1, 2020. Following the author's disclosure of Brigadier General Esmail Qaani's use of the EP-MMV aircraft on that trip, this report led to the Quds Force temporarily suspending its use of Mahan Air ceremonial aircraft for its official trips to Iraq.
The success of Mahan Air's BAE-156 and RJ-85 aircraft in attracting the attention of government officials of the Islamic Republic led to the purchase of a third aircraft of this type in 2019. This aircraft, with the Kyrgyz registration mark EX-27009, along with two other aircraft of the same type but with a passenger cabin, were purchased through a Kyrgyz intermediary company called TezJet and arrived in Iran on February 25, 2019.
This aircraft was previously used by the President of Uzbekistan until 2013 and is used for regional and neighboring country trips. After undergoing necessary periodic repairs and preparation at the Mahan Airlines maintenance hangar at Khomeini Airport, the aircraft will be put into operation and will receive the national registration mark EP-MMS in 2020.
Does Ghadir Investment Company have a similar plan to use Hawker 400 ceremonial aircraft?
According to information released by the US Treasury Department, Ghadir Investment Company is the most important financial institution owned or at least affiliated with the Leader of the Islamic Republic. In this regard, in 2013, the company was placed under sanctions by the US Treasury Department; sanctions that were lifted following the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), allowing the company to conclude several important international business contracts for two years.
But it wasn't long before this company, as one of the first and most important financial institutions of the Islamic Republic regime and its leader, was once again subject to severe sanctions by the US Treasury Department on November 4, 2018.
Ghadir Investment Company's use of Mahan Airlines, which has been under severe US sanctions for years due to its ownership of shares in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its provision of aircraft to transport weapons and Quds Force forces to Syria, has raised serious concerns about the type and manner of use of ceremonial Hawker 400 aircraft.
In this regard, the author interviewed one of the consultants and people involved in the purchase of six ceremonial planes for use by an air services company owned by Ghadir, on condition that his name not be mentioned. He, who has been dreaming of establishing and revitalizing the air taxi industry in Iran for years, claimed that the purchase of the planes in question was made with the intention of transporting Iranian and foreign businessmen and capitalists, as well as medical tourism to transport wealthy patients from foreign countries to Iran for treatment.
When the author asked him about Ghadir's connection to the office of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and the Revolutionary Guard Corps, he refused to continue the interview.
A former manager of Mahan Air, who is now working for an Iranian airline, also told the author, on condition of anonymity, about the possible use of the Hawker 400 XP aircraft purchased by Mahan Air, that the aircraft in question, along with Mahan Air's only Cessna Citation, are to be transferred to a company called Ghadir Air Services, which is managed by a number of former commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, including the former commander of the Qadr Air Base of the IRGC Aerospace Force, to be used to transport military commanders and government officials of the Islamic Republic regime.
He also added that in the past 42 years, due to security issues, no airline has received a license to operate air taxis, and Iran's first air taxi company after the revolution, called Shahin Bal Parvaz, owned by Mohammad Reza Aronov, a former manager of Aseman Airlines, was not allowed to operate due to restrictions imposed by the Aviation Protection Corps, and its air taxi operations were eventually suspended in 2015.
For years, Mahan Air, despite being partially owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been unable to obtain the necessary license to operate air taxi services for security reasons. The acquisition of such a license by Ghadir Investment Company indicates the high level of influence of its managers and the possible use of ceremonial aircraft to transport government officials and IRGC military commanders in the near future.
Source: Radio Farda
