Iranian jet seized in Istanbul over €3 million debt

A Caspian Airlines Boeing 737 was seized at Istanbul Airport on Monday by court-ordered enforcement officers acting on a debt claim of around €3 million, leaving passengers already boarded on a flight bound for Iran stranded.

According to Anadolu Agency, lawyers and bailiffs representing the creditor, aviation representation and supervision company ACM Temsil Gozetim, arrived at the aircraft once it was ready for departure and served the seizure order before it could take off. Passengers and cabin crew were removed from the plane and returned to the terminal.

Caspian Airlines is a Tehran-based carrier founded in 1993, operating as part of Iran’s state aviation group. It flies Boeing 737s on domestic and international routes, including Istanbul.

Iranian carriers have faced chronic difficulties maintaining their fleets and meeting financial obligations to foreign counterparts as a result of decades of U.S. sanctions, which restrict access to aircraft, spare parts, maintenance services and international financial systems. The war between the U.S. and Iran that began in February has worsened these pressures, with Iranian airspace repeatedly disrupted and international routes curtailed.

The seizure came days after U.S. secondary sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector took effect last Wednesday. The U.S. Treasury had sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines and nine related service providers on September 8 as part of its “Economic Expulsion” operation, warning that foreign airports, fuel suppliers, ground-handling companies and ticketing firms that continued to serve Iranian carriers would themselves face sanctions and risk being cut off from the U.S. dollar system.

The secondary sanctions triggered a rapid contraction of Iranian aviation internationally, with flights by Iranian carriers suspended in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Oman. Iran’s largest private carrier, Mahan Air, meanwhile suspended flights to Turkey and Oman. Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines suspended their flights to Iran until October 24. Qatar Airways suspended services citing airspace restrictions. China, Russia and Pakistan have continued to maintain flights to and from Iran.

Daily international flights at Tehran’s main airport fell from 80 to 90 before the sanctions to around 41 by Monday, according to monitoring data. Tehran has filed formal complaints with the UN, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Court of Justice. Turkey has not officially banned Iranian carriers, which is why Caspian Airlines was still operating the Istanbul route at the time of the seizure.