AI raises Rs 7,000 cr from selling and leasing back 9 Dreamliners

NEW DELHI: Adopting the sale and lease back route, debt-ridden Air India has raised almost Rs 7,000 crore by selling nine of its 21 Dreamliners to a Singapore-based leasor and then leasing the planes from it. Earlier, AI had sold and leased back 12 Dreamliners.

About Rs 6,000 crore raised from this deal will be used to reduce the airline’s aircraft purchase loans. AI has a combined aircraft purchase and working capital loan of Rs 40,000 crore apart from accumulated losses of Rs 30,000 crore.

The nine Boeing 787s sold and leased back had joined AI fleet between March 2014 and this June. AI had fixed a reserve price of not less than $123 million for planes acquired in 2015 and $120 million for the aircraft inducted in the fleet during 2014.

Erstwhile AI and Indian Airlines had placed orders for 111 aircraft — 43 Airbus A-320s for IA; 18 Boeing 737 for AI Express and 50 wide body Boeings for AI — for about Rs 55,000 crore in UPA-I rule in 2007.

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Source:Timesofindia

Air India