Lion Air Group has received and financed 53 aircraft over the past 12 months as it increases its network across Asia and mobilises its forces to take on the competition – namely AirAsia.
Transportation Partners has also being busy funding these delivers. It arranged finance/delivery for 30 737s, mainly using sale-leaseback. Only three of the aircraft were delivered to Lion Air; ten were delivered to Thai Lion alone. Thailand is expected to be a key theatre of battle given the China potential going forward. It is notable that Thai Lion is the only low-cost carrier in Thailand to gain the coveted ICAO safety audit accreditation.
Batik Air has taken delivery of seven A320s. Transportation Partners also arranged financing and delivery for 13 ATR72s, the majority were delivered to Wings, which were financed by the Coface-backed bond for ATRs. Sale-leaseback transactions were also closed on three A330s; one with Jackson Square, and two with Vermillion. These aircraft have been deployed on the busy Jakarta-Medan trunk route, but will be deployed on the Haj and Umrah routes once peak season arrives.
Malindo has recently received route rights into Perth and Hong Kong, and all group airlines are rumoured to be negotiating some interesting new routes into China and India.
This year is expected to be the year Transportation Partners will start to lease out its forward deliveries of MAX and NEO positions for 2017 and 2018. The fledgling lessor is expected to hire more sales staff this year. Industry sources suggest that TP may “possibly” seek a minority investor this year. Any investment would a great opportunity for a lessor with currently no MAX or NEO order book. Parties from China, South East Asia and North America has already expressed their interest.
The airline-lessor concept seems to be gaining traction since Norwegian’s Artic lessor succeeded in leasing out 12 A320s for Hong Kong Express via Santos Dumont, which we reported last month.