newstodate.aero

Sep 28, 2021 (newstodate): Who says you cannot eat your pie and have it, too?  
   Finnair - and airlines generally - do not subscribe: the airline has now completed a sale-lease back transaction comprising four A350 aircraft.
   Supporting the deal are GECAS and the Pacific Investment Management Company LLC, PIMCO, as the lessors, and the  operating lease period is, on an average, 12 years.
   The sale-lease back transaction has an immediate positive cash effect for Finnair accruing to more than 400 mio USD that will now be used to refinance existing debt and retire its undrawn revolving credit facility of 175 million euros.
   Earlier, Finnair used the cash-raising method by divesting of land plots housing Aircraft Hangar 7, the Ground Handling Fleet Centre, the Ground Equipment Maintenance Unit and the Training Centre in 2009, and later also applying the method on parts of its MD-11 aircraft fleet.
   In 2014, Finnair announced an MoU with Doric Asset Finance GmbH & Co. KG for the sale and leaseback of six ATR72 aircraft, and later the same year, Finnair announced an MoU with GOAL German Operating Aircraft Leasing for sale-lease back of three Embraer 190 aircraft, followed by an MoU with Infinity Aviation Capital LLC for a similar transaction comprising three Embraer 170 aircraft.
  Finnair has ordered a total of 19 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, of which 16 have been delivered.  
   The remaining three A350 aircraft are slated for delivery in Q2/ 2022, Q4/2024 and Q1/2025, respectively.
   Earlier this year, Finnair announced a similar creative way to add its next, and 17th, Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
   Rather than purchasing the aircraft ordered itself, Finnair  finalized a lease financing arrangement with JLPS Holding Ireland Limited as the lessor and lease servicer of the aircraft.   
   Through this arrangement saving the company in excess of USD 100 million in cash flow, Finnair will assign the purchase of the Airbus A350 aircraft to a third party, and then lease it back for its own operation.
   The aircraft is slated for delivery to Finnair in Q2/2022, with the operating lease period at a minimum of 12 years, including a storage period expected to commence in Q4/2021, concurrent with the sale of the aircraft.  
   So: eat your pie - and have it, too...