A new way to finance the acquisition of passenger seats has been launched by Geven together with Velantis Seat Financing Solutions. The pair will offer seat leasing services to airlines, operators and aircraft lessors.
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“We had been thinking of it for some time,” says Rodolfo Baldascino, marketing and sales manager at Geven. At AIX18, Velantis approached the seat manufacturer with the same idea and the two companies began discussions. “Now we are ready to deliver our joint solution with Velantis,” he says.
“It’s a completely new product in the market,” adds Roger Clements, chief executive office of Velantis Leasing, parent company of Velantis Seat Financing Solutions. “Airlines lease aircraft, engines, even pilots, so why not seats?”
Clements says that leasing seats makes sense, because cash management at airlines is difficult. “Also, a full change of seats by an airline across a fleet is big [capital expenditure],” he says. “So we intend to lease each seat for a certain number of cents per block hour. We spread the cost over the life of the seat in this pay-as-you-go type offer.”
Baldascino points out that some airlines often feel the need to modernise their cabin to maintain competitiveness and consistency with their business model, but are hindered by a lack of financial resources. “This will help them to have their passengers sitting on the latest products,” he says. “It’s a win-win co-operation.”
Clements says the leasing solution has had “an unbelievable response” from airlines. “There are four airlines who want to do this. If all these deals came off, it could involve as many as 8,000 seats.”
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Source: Flight Daily News
