Five B777-200ERs were ferried from Siem Reap New Angkor International into Iran on July 15, 2025, having been previously provisionally registered in Madagascar, ostensibly for shadowy start-up UDAAN Aviation.
5R-RIS (msn 32334), 5R-ISA (msn 30866), 5R-HER (msn 28522), 5R-IJA (msn 28527), and 5R-RIJ (msn 33369) were ferried directly from Cambodia to Iran in short succession. Iranian media reported that two landed at Chah Bahar, two at Zahedan, and one at Mashad. ch-aviation has independently verified only the arrival of 5R-HER at Mashad.
The B777s were last operated by NokScoot until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As shareholder and aircraft owner Singapore Airlines Group decided to liquidate the Thai LCC, the aircraft were transferred back to Singapore Airlines, placed on the Singaporean register, and ferried to Alice Springs for long-term storage. They were then acquired by Florida-based company Ion Aviation LLC between September 2023 and February 2024, and reregistered in the United States. Under their US registrations, they were ferried to Lanzhou between October 2023 and March 2024. They were later deregistered from the US by late March 2024 and exported to Hong Kong.
Their later registration(s) and owner(s) are not known. While ADS-B evidence of their ferry flights from China via Cambodia to Iran is limited, at least one aircraft – N99001, now 5R-RIJ – was parked at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta between late May and early July 2025.
Civil Aviation of Madagascar has confirmed that the aircraft were registered in the country on January 17, 2025, under a provisional, three-month permit for UDAAN Aviation. The shadowy company, about which nothing beyond the name is known, purported to be launching as a Malagasy carrier and reportedly said that it would use the B777s for its own operations and that it would ferry the aircraft out of Lanzhou to Kenya for maintenance. The regulator said that the temporary permits expired on April 12, 2025, and any flights under the 5R- registrations after that date were illegal.
The Malagasy regulator later alleged that the ferry flight out of Cambodia was conducted using fake certificates of registration with the validity date fraudulently altered to July 12, 2025. The government also said it would sue UDAAN Aviation for the faking of the paperwork.
The future operator of the aircraft is not currently known, although Iranian media speculate that it is likely to be Mahan Air. The carrier is reportedly looking to replace some of its A340s; it currently operates nine A340-300s and six A340-600s. The quadjets could then be transferred to other Iranian operators, presumably ones not specifically designated for international sanctions like Mahan Air, to enable their international expansion.
There are currently no B777s operated in Iran.