Two Additional Aircraft Slated For Delivery Under 12-Year Lease

China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Limited (CALC) has delivered a new A320 aircraft to Air India Ltd. (“Air India”). The aircraft was delivered at the facilities of Airbus in Hamburg, Germany on Monday.

This is the third aircraft delivered under a 12-year operating lease agreement between CALC and Air India for five aircraft. The first two deliveries were completed respectively on 3 February and 9 July 2015. CALC shall deliver the remaining A320 aircraft to Air India by the end of 2015 in line with Air India’s fleet optimization program on its current A320/A319 fleet. The newly delivered A320 aircraft, configured with maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 77 tons and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) Authorization Required (AR), is equipped with Sharklet wingtip devices which enhance the fuel-efficiency and payload-range performance of the A320.
 
Consistent with the previous two Air India deliveries, this aircraft is financed via the support of the Export Credit Agencies (“ECAs”). For CALC, this is the third aircraft financing backed by a guarantee from UK Export Finance (as fronting ECA). Among the transaction parties, Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (CACIB) acts as the ECA financing advisor to the Group, Vedder Price as the transaction counsel representing the Group, TD Bank, N.A. as the lender and TD Securities as co-arranger; ING Capital LLC is the co-arranger and facility agent, Wilmington Trust SP Services (Dublin) Ltd is the security trustee and Watson Farley & Williams LLP is the transaction counsel representing the ECAs, the lender and the facility agent.
 
CALC has established a solid cooperation partnership with the ECAs; the credit status of CALC is trusted and recognized by these important international credit agencies. ECA financing enhances the Group’s competitiveness and geographical coverage and is an important international financing alternative for our global business expansion strategies. We have laid a good start with the Air India aircraft financing project, and are looking forward to expanding such alternatives even more with our overseas clients in the future. Our Group would like to express gratitude to the three ECAs for their unfailing support, and all the professional parties involved in the Air India aircraft financing project.

(Image provided by CALC)

FMI: www.calc.com.hk