A340s, 777s and Forged Papers: Inside the Plot to Replenish Iran’s Fleet.
A fresh sanctions-evasion pathway has opened from Africa to Tehran, aviation researchers and open-source investigators warn, after Malawian front companies began re-registering wide- and narrow-body jets bound for Iran.
The transfers mirror a larger, adaptive campaign by Mahan Air — an Iranian carrier long linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — to rebuild long-haul capacity in the face of U.S. export controls.
A chronology of flights and registry entries reviewed by investigators shows Malawi-registered airframes appearing in Asia before small, clandestine movements toward Iran.
The pattern follows the July 2025 “Triple Seven” operation through Madagascar, in which five ex-Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-212ERs were routed through multiple countries using forged Malagasy registrations.
That scandal prompted arrests in Madagascar and the suspension of a civil-aviation official, but experts say Tehran’s logisticians quickly shifted tactics.
Between mid-2024 and mid-2025, Malawian shell operators acquired records for several aircraft types — including Boeing 737s, Airbus A320s and the four-engine Airbus A340-642 — that investigators say were refurbished in China and later prepared for clandestine transfer to Iran.
In at least three cases, jets sold for dismantling in 2022 were instead returned to service and painted with Malawian registration codes while stored at Taiyuan Wusu International Airport, according to satellite imagery and photographic evidence examined by open-source analysts.
The aircraft are valuable for reasons beyond passenger service. The A340-642, despite its age, uses Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines whose spare-parts lines are more accessible to Iranian technicians than the primarily U.S.-made engines on more modern jets.
Investigators say that capability, combined with the A340’s range and cargo capacity, makes it an attractive platform for mixed passenger-freight missions that can support long-distance logistics — a capability Tehran has used for years.
Analysts say the Malawi shift exposes broader weaknesses in international aviation oversight. “Where one permissive registry is closed, another can appear,” said an aviation compliance expert who reviewed the materials.
Wealthier states and established registries have more robust end-user checks; smaller states with limited technical capacity and acute financing needs are often vulnerable to opaque transactions and political pressure, the expert added.
The U.S. response to the Madagascar affair — a coordinated probe by the FBI and sanctions on complicit actors — demonstrated that enforcement can work.
Washington and allies now face a fresh policy choice: replicate that model in Lilongwe and other jurisdictions, or watch Iran’s procurement networks adapt again.
The report urges Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the State Department and international civil aviation authorities to press Malawi for transparency, suspend suspect air operator certificates and trace beneficial ownership of the shell companies involved.
If left unchecked, investigators warn, the incremental restoration of Iran’s long-range airlift would erode the effectiveness of export controls by adding capability one aircraft at a time — a slow-moving attrition of sanctions that would be difficult to reverse.
