Air India has signed a definitive sale and leaseback agreement with Willis Lease Finance for 34 CFM56-5B engines on its A320 fleet. This move is in sync with Air India’s revamp policy to replace old A320 engines to reduce maintenance costs and optimizing cash flows.
Nipun Aggarwal, CCO of Air India, said: This transaction will allow Air India to de-risk itself operationally, improve fleet reliability, reduce cost, and optimise cash flow."
According to Air India, the engines will be covered under Willis Lease's ConstantThrust, which will deliver significant reliability and cost savings over a traditional MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) shop visit program. Willis Lease will also have an in-country team to coordinate and manage the entire program and all logistics and transportation involved.
This A320 fleet was a part of Air India’s 2006 purchase order.
“Under the sale side of the transaction, Willis Lease will purchase 34 engines from Air India, powering 13 Airbus A321 aircraft and four Airbus A320 aircraft. Through the program, Willis Lease will provide replacement and standby spare engines, allowing the airline to avoid potentially costly and unpredictable shop visits on engines powering a transitioning aircraft fleet,” Air India said in a statement.
Air India recently announced the induction of 30 new aircraft on lease, five Boeing 777-200LR, and 25 Airbus narrowbodies.
Meanwhile, as per the official data released by the airline, Air India carried 77.07 million passengers between January to August 2022 against 46.04 million in 2021 showing a year-on-year growth of 67.38%. Air India plans to take full advantage of this robust passenger demand and a part of the plan is to make the grounded planes functional.