Israeli leisure operator Israir Group has completed the sale of a pair of ATR 72-500 turboprops whose phase-out was part of the company’s fleet-simplification plans.
The company had previously disclosed, at the end of last year, that it had reached a binding agreement with a buyer for the aircraft.
It says the sale agreement has generated proceeds of $13 million, and that it expects to record a one-off capital gain of $2 million.
Completion of the ATR sale, it says, represents a “significant milestone” in advancing Israir’s strategy, which includes shifting to an all-Airbus A320 fleet.
Israir says it is deploying its latest A320 on services to Eilat – reducing the flight time to 40min – as well as international routes to cities including Istanbul and Sharm el-Sheikh.
It also intends to introduce a seventh A320 by the end of this year, and is still looking at short-term wet-lease agreements to meet demand.
While Israir has not identified the “foreign” buyer for the ATRs, the Swiss-based aircraft asset specialist BLAC – which the carrier selected to remarket the turboprops – says it has sold the pair to Philippines company Leading Edge Air Services.
It identifies the aircraft as MSN931 and MSN962, both 2011 airframes, and says they will be the first ATRs in the Leading Edge fleet.
