Mahan Air added a former Southafrican RJ85 to its fleet
Mahan Air added a RJ85 to its fleet. EP-MEI was previously operated by Southafrican airline AirLink. The aircraft is one of three which were stored at Hyderabad in India. At December 21, 2023 these three were ferried via Iran to Kabul. The intention of the flights to Kabul were probably to make it look like the aircraft were going to an Afghan airline.
The aircraft were purchased from Aviation Working Group, a company based in South Africa. Two RJ85’s were overhauled in Mashdad, northeastern Iran.
Iran used various tricks using African registrations to acquire aircraft despite the sanctions.
