Saudia has formally denied any role in a Saudia Boeing 777 Iran transfer after at least two Boeing 777-200ER aircraft formerly operated by the Saudi carrier were spotted at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, with reports pointing to a chain of intermediaries spanning the UAE and Oman.
The denial, posted publicly on 3 July 2026, states that the aircraft were sold on 7 June 2023 to a company outside Saudi Arabia in full compliance with international laws and regulations. Saudia says it has had no involvement in the subsequent fate of those aircraft from that point forward.
Sanctions background and the Mahan Air connection
The aircraft are alleged to have ended up in the hands of Mahan Air, the Iranian carrier that has been sanctioned by the United States. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Mahan Air because of its alleged links to the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Those designations make any direct or indirect transfer of US-origin aircraft to Mahan Air a potential sanctions violation, a fact that lends the episode considerable gravity for any parties in the transaction chain.
Reports that surfaced online on 30 June 2026 suggested the five 777-200ER aircraft may have been routed through the UAE and Oman before reaching Iranian territory. Sharjah-based company ECT Aviation Support was allegedly among the parties that participated in the transaction, though the full structure of the deal has not been confirmed.
A well-worn playbook for circumventing sanctions
The alleged Saudia Boeing 777 Iran transfer fits a pattern that aviation-sanctions observers have tracked for several years. Iran has repeatedly used multi-jurisdictional intermediary chains to secure Western-built commercial aircraft for its ageing fleet, sidestepping the restrictions that bar it from accessing the international market directly.
Several Airbus A340 aircraft are reported to have reached Iran by similar means in 2024 and 2022. A separate case emerged in 2025, when another five Boeing 777-200ER aircraft appeared to have transited from South East Asia into Iranian territory after receiving a temporary registration in Madagascar that was reportedly forged. The discovery of that scheme triggered a political crisis in Madagascar: the Transportation Minister was dismissed and police arrested 22 people in an anti-corruption probe linked to the deal.
The broader wartime context has since overtaken some of those aircraft. At least one of the 777s associated with the Madagascar scheme was destroyed on the ground during US-Israeli strikes at Mehrabad International Airport earlier in 2026. Estimates suggest as many as 20 commercial aircraft in Iranian hands may have been destroyed during the conflict, though the exact figure has never been fully established.
What Saudia’s position means for the trade
For airline asset managers and lessors, the episode underlines the compliance risk that can attach to aircraft disposals long after a sale has closed. Saudia’s statement draws a clear line at the point of the 2023 transaction, arguing that subsequent routing decisions were entirely outside its control or knowledge. Whether regulators in relevant jurisdictions accept that framing will depend on the due-diligence trail surrounding the original sale and any documentation of the buyer’s identity and intended use.
The alleged involvement of a Sharjah-based intermediary will also focus attention on the UAE’s own enforcement of sanctions-related obligations, a subject that has drawn scrutiny in connection with earlier Iran-linked aircraft transfers. Oman’s reported role as a transit point adds another layer to what investigators will need to unravel.
The five aircraft at the centre of the current dispute had been part of Saudia’s fleet in earlier years before the 2023 disposal. With at least two of them now photographed on the ramp at Mehrabad, the pressure on all parties to account for the full ownership chain is unlikely to ease, particularly given OFAC’s track record of pursuing secondary sanctions against non-US entities found to have facilitated prohibited transfers to Mahan Air.
