what was going on.
Steve Fitzgerald, head of the European Airports Division of Infratil, the New Zealand company that owns the Manston, England, airport announced that Infratil has stopped refueling Iran Air planes.
He said the decision to halt fuel sales was “based on a view that this was the right thing to do.” He also commented: “There’s a concern among governments that dealing with Iran at the moment is sensitive.”
Charles Buchanan, chief executive of the airport, said, “This was a profitable exercise for us, but the sensitivities of dealing with Iran have changed.…
We do have to take the ethics of the situation into account and take a decision that is right in the wider context.”
Most likely, Infratil was embarrassed by the publicity that it was selling fuel to Iran. It announced its decision only four days after The Sunday Times of London revealed that Iran Air flights had been hopping 80 miles from Heathrow, west of London, to Manston, near the English Channel, to fuel up for the flight back to Tehran.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Iran Air as falsely blaming the cut-off on the British government. Iran Air insisted the action would not impact flights as Iran Air has “many other options” for refueling.
The US Congress last year approved sanctions on firms supplying Iran with refined petroleum products. However, the sanctions don’t cover provision of jet fuel to Iranian flights since there is an exemption for sales of less than $1 million at a time and under $5 million over any 12-month period Infratil’s
Fitzgerald said the sales to Iran Air came nowhere near the ceiling.
But when the new law took effect, BP swiftly stopped selling fuel to Iran Air. At that time, BP was very unpopular in the United States because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just weeks earlier. It was obvious that BP did not want any more negative publicity in the United States.
After that, other companies, one-by-one, began announcing they were ceasing to sell jet fuel to Iran Air. The company now has to go to Eastern Europe to fuel up for most of its flights back to Iran.
Infratil does no business in the United States so the threat of sanctions—being denied business opportunities in the United States—means nothing to the firm. Nonetheless, it appeared concerned about the bad publicity from The Sunday Times’ article in Europe, where it does alot of business.
According to The Sunday Times, Manston airport only started refueling the Iran Air flights last August. In addition to the flights from Heathrow, flights from Holland’s Schiphol airport also came to Manston to refuel.