The Mahan Air Boeing 747-300 registration EP-MNE returned to flight after spending 5 years in maintenance. At the time, the aircraft suffered a problem in two of its engines and also damage to the fuselage after taking off from Mehrabad International Airport.
After 40 hours of departure, the aircraft returned and landed safely in Mehrabad, Iran. Since then it had not returned to operations, usually old aircraft that suffer serious problems are usually withdrawn from operation. Apparently, Mahan Air put the engines of another 747 on the EP-MNE so that it could return to operations.
Now the 747-300 warrior is back in operations, the world was very different from when the plane stopped flying. Initially, the Boeing will be scheduled to carry out domestic flights, in particular the connection from Mehrabad to Kish Island.
Possibly this Boeing 747 is the oldest enger plane in operation today. The Mahan Air fleet still has 4 Airbus A300-600 with an average age of 29.7 years. It also has 12 Airbus A340s -300 and -600 versions, as well as 3 Boeing 747s -300 and -400 versions and 7 British Aerospace 146/Avro RJ.
With one of the oldest fleets in operation, this scenario must be close to changing as the country is again negotiating a nuclear deal with the US and this would allow airlines in Iran to order new planes.
For now these orders can come back, as Iran returned to negotiations with Vienna to lift some sanctions in exchange for a new nuclear deal.
However, Iran is trying to get new planes in another way as well, the forced way. Both Iran Air's managing director, Alireza Barkhor, and Iran's Minister of Urban and Road Development, Mohammad Eslami, want to somehow force Boeing to hand over the planes.
Until 2016, there were orders from Iranian airlines for Boeing, including the manufacturer's new planes such as the 737 MAX and 777X.
