Air India puts Dreamliner on sale and lease back mode
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Air India has put four of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner on sale and lease back mode.
The airline has earned US$60 million through sale-and lease-back with Britain’s Investec Bank, for a period of 12 years.
The airline has plans to sale and lease back three more of its 11 Dreamliner aircraft this fiscal and is currently in talks with Deutsche Bank. “The four planes have been taken back on operation lease for 12 years. At the end of this period, we can either return them or extend the lease by another three years. Also, we have entered into agreements with the lessors that if they sell the planes at the end of the lease period, then AI will get a share of the residual value if it crosses a certain amount,” a senior official was quoted by the Times of India.
Stepping up its funding efforts, the airline has requested the finance ministry to allow it to issue tax-free bonds to raise INR10,000 crore so that the funds can be utilised for high-cost long-term debt.”Tax free bonds can be issued only by infrastructure sector companies, while aviation is yet to get that tag. The federation of Indian carriers has been requesting for infrastructure status to get easier access to funds through ECB routes and even facilitate domestic borrowing,” stated the official.
The national carrier has an average fleet age of three-and-a-half years.
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