The Sudanese Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has approved a proposal submitted by Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) wherein the European manufacturer will supply Sudan Airways (SD, Khartoum) with eight new aircraft.
The official Suna news agency said Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Badawi met with Airbus representatives as well as the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Hashim Taher, in Khartoum last week where he promised to submit the proposal to the Cabinet for discussion and approval.
The terms of the deal, which is only tentative given US economic sanctions against Sudan remain in place, were not disclosed.
The state-owned carrier has suffered greatly as a result of a US decision in 1993 to designate Sudan a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SST) joining the likes of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), and Syria. Unable to freely access aircraft and spares on the open market, Sudan Airways' fleet currently stands at a single operational A320-200 used to connect Khartoum with Port Sudan locally as well as Juba and Cairo Int'l internationally.
Despite the removal of longtime dictator Omar al-Basheer in a military coup last year and the subsequent instalment of a civilian-dominated transitional council, Washington DC has insisted that Khartoum embrace human rights, religious freedoms, enhance its counter-terrorism efforts, and promote "internal peace, political stability and economic recovery in Sudan" before it will consider removing the North African petrostate from the SST list.