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#Industry News

Avolon terminates commitment to acquire 27 B737 MAX aircraft

Aircraft leasing company Avolon has terminated its commitment to acquire 27 B737 MAX aircraft in the 2020-2022 timeframe.

The latest move follows the cancellation of 75 B737 MAXs in April as it deals with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition to this, the company removed its commitment to procure one A330neo aircraft, which is scheduled to be delivered in 2022. It also deferred deliveries of three A320neo family aircraft from 2020/2021 to 2022.

During this quarter, Avolon delivered three new aircraft, transferred four aircraft to follow-on lessees and sold ten aircraft.

Avolon CEO Dómhnal Slattery said: “Q2 was a challenging period for the aviation sector as Covid-19 impacted the industry on an unprecedented global scale, bringing with it continued uncertainty around the pace and timing of a recovery.

“The months ahead will be difficult, but we have the experience and balance sheet to manage through these headwinds.

“Decisive measures to strengthen our capital position included the opportunistic buyback of $639m of our unsecured bonds at a discount to par, in so doing reducing our near-term debt maturities.

“These actions provide us with the capital strength to manage through this market backdrop and to support our customers through the recovery.”

The Ireland-headquartered lessor reduced its near-term commitments by more than 140 aircraft since the start of the year.

The company maintained a ‘strong liquidity position’ at the quarter-end with more than $5bn total liquidity.

Last month, Oslo-based low-cost carrier Norwegian Air issued a notice of termination to Boeing relating to orders for 97 aircraft.

Details

  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Avolon