Finnair has flagged an immediate positive cash effect in excess of €100 million ($118 million) after finalising the sale-and-leaseback of one of its Airbus A350 aircraft.
The Oneworld carrier says it has completed the deal with Nomura Babcock & Brown – with BBAM Aircraft Management arranger and lease servicer – under which it will lease back the aircraft for 12 years. The deal includes options to extend the lease.
The aircraft was delivered to the airline in February this year and is one of 15 of the type Finnair has in its fleet. Cirium fleets data indicates it currently has 11 of its A350s in service and four in storage after beginning to restore its network following the pandemic grounding.
Finnair’s A350 fleet is a mix of owned and leased aircraft. It has four further A350s on order.
The airline says: ”The arrangement has no major impact on Finnair’s operating result for the third quarter of 2020. However, the immediate positive cash effect for Finnair is in excess of €100 million.”
The move further bolsters Finnair’s balance sheet after it last month raised net proceeds of around €501 million following a share issue. Finnair had earlier reported an operating loss of €174 million for the second quarter, driven by the virtual halting of passenger flights due to the pandemic, and said it expected a similar scale of loss in the third quarter
