Qatar Airways, Qatar Aviation Lease Company and Standard Chartered, through its Aviation Finance team, Pembroke, have successfully closed a Sale and Operating Leaseback transaction for three 777-300ER and five 787-8 aircraft.
The deal was officially concluded at a ceremony held in Singapore and attended by His Excellency Akbar Al-Baker, Group Chief Executive of Qatar Airways, and Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered.
This transaction is the first sale & leaseback transaction entered into by Qatar Airways and was structured and arranged exclusively by Standard Chartered.
“Qatar Airways is a long-standing client of Standard Chartered and we are delighted to have structured and arranged this landmark transaction for the airline. It demonstrates Standard Chartered’s capabilities and commitment to partnering with core clients in the region – something we have been actively doing for over 90 years. We are proud to be supporting Qatar Airways as they expand their fleet to meet increasing air traffic demand across one of the world’s fastest growing regions,” said Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive for Standard Chartered.
In the past few weeks, Qatar has been actively financing its deliveries, with two A380s financed using a French lease structure closed in the past five weeks, which were arranged by Crédit Agricole CIB. The aircraft (msn 137) was financed using the French lease, with CA-CIB acting as arranger, security trustee and facility agent combined with commercial debt provided by KfW IPEX-Bank. Both CACIB and KfW IPEX-Bank acted as Debt Arrangers. Last week CA-CIB and HSBC closed the financing for the second Airbus A380-800 (msn143) for Qatar, which was delivered on 10 November in Hamburg. CA-CIB again acted as arranger, equity provider, security trustee and facility agent for the French Lease. Both CACIB and HSBC acted as Debt Arrangers. Qatar has eight more A380s on order.
Meanwhile, IATA’s latest assessment of premium and economy travel in September shows growth in international air passengers slowing in September, rising 2.3% compared to a year ago – a weaker increase than the 4.5% achieved in August. Premium and economy passenger numbers were up by the same rate in September, 2.3%. There was also a decline in passenger numbers in September compared to August, although part of that is a correction in volumes after the strong increase in August compared to July – importantly, IATA notes, the overall trend remains positive. At least for now, the report shows a more fundamental weakening of the positive growth trend, with latest data showing widespread slowing in major economies at the start of Q4. IATA states that the within Far East market remains weak, contracting 1.6% in September year-on-year. Air travel declines in Thailand and Malaysia and now being compounded by setbacks in the Chinese economy. The recent weakening of the Eurozone economy may be starting to have negative impacts on air travel demand, with a rise of just 2.3% for the within Europe market – slower than the trend so far this year (3.6%). Longer-haul markets have been performing relatively more strongly, including the North Atlantic and North and Mid Pacific, which explains why international RPKs are growing much faster than passenger numbers.