Iran Air has confirmed that its sole Boeing 747, a 747-200 Combi registered EP-ICD, last flew in mid-September and will remain grounded for months after reaching the cycle threshold for heavy maintenance checks. According to aeroTELEGRAPH, the work will be the first time such heavy maintenance, including a D-Check, has been done in Iran. The work began in late September. Iran Air CEO Taher Abdolhai announced the plans on Telegram following a press conference last week, saying the aircraft had reached the threshold of 20,000 flight cycles and must undergo the necessary repair steps to continue operating; he estimated the work would take 1.5 to two months, although an updated schedule from Iran Air cited by aeroTELEGRAPH puts the timescale closer to six months.
EP-ICD is 38.1 years old, having first flown in September 1988. It entered service with Martinair as PH-MCF, had accumulated some 86,039 flight hours across 17,320 cycles by the time it left Martinair in late 2007, briefly served Turkish carrier Ankair as TC-AKZ in May 2008, and joined Iran Air a month later; it is now configured exclusively for cargo. In recent months it mainly flew between Tehran and Tianjin, China, operating just two round trips to Tianjin in September, the second departing on September 16 and touching back down in Tehran on the morning of September 18, 2026. Abdolhai said: "IranAir is facing fleet limitations, accumulated debts, and a reduction in international routes, while the return of grounded aircraft and the development of flights depend on the supply of parts, financial resources, and compliance with safety requirements."