UAE: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Sold 16 Boeing At $900 million

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, the Middle East’s largest aircraft lessor, signed agreements to sell 16 Boeing and Airbus aircraft worth $900 million that will be used to repay debt and fund growth plans.

The three deals for the sale of 737, A320, A330 and A350 jets are expected to close in the second half of the year, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise said in a statement on Wednesday.

This divestment activity will help us optimise our portfolio composition and monetise some of our recent larger-scale investments, Firoz Tarapore, chief executive of DAE, said.

The state-owned company is in talks with Airbus and Boeing for an order of another 400 narrow-body aircraft worth more than $40 billion at list prices.

DAE is growing its fleet further after it acquired Dublin-based lessor Awas last year in a deal that propelled it to the top ranks of global aircraft lessors, raising its portfolio to nearly 400 planes worth $14bn.

The deals for the sale of 16 aircraft will not impact DAE’s total number of customers, Mr Tarapore said, without revealing the buyers in the agreement.

The planes have an average age of two years and are currently on lease to 11 airlines in 11 countries.

DAE Capital, the leasing arm which signed the three agreements, has formed an asset management unit that will seek to build a $5bn portfolio of assets in the coming years, the company said in January.

Last week, the lessor signed a deal for an unsecured revolving credit facility of an initial $480mn, that can be extended up to $800mn, as it seeks to diversify its sources of funding.

It is also considering the issuance of a $500m sukuk and could tap the market either later this year or in 2019, depending on market appetite, Mr Tarapore said in April.

In 2017, DAE raised $2.3bn in senior bonds split across three tranches in the United States to fund its acquisition of Awas.


Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: Nordwind Airlines Leasing Two Boeing 777-300ER Widebody Airliners

Russian carrier Nordwind Airlines is leasing two Boeing 777-300ER widebody airliners from Dubai-based lessor DAE Capital (part of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise). The aircraft were previously operated by EVA Air of Taiwan.

To implement its feeder strategy, which covers 200 destinations, in the coming fall-winter season, Nordwind Airlines continues to expand its widebody fleet and is preparing to put two Boeing 777-300s into operation.

The first of the two aircraft arrived at the airline’s home base Sheremetyevo on August 31.

Following the requisite customs procedures, in early September the airliner will start performing charter flights from Moscow.

The carrier will receive the second aircraft next week.

The two Boeings, to be registered as VP-BJL and VP-BJO, were built in 2005.

They will become the first airliners in Nordwind’s fleet to have a three-class cabin layout,312 seats in total: 38 in business, 63 in premium economy, and 211 in coach.

Nordwind already operates four Boeing 777-200s, which seat 393 passengers in two classes.

The new addition will bring the carrier’s total fleet up to 22 aircraft.

It also has Airbus A330-200s, A321s, and additional four airframes are expected to be delivered by year-end.

Nordwind’s passenger traffic grew 85.4% year-on-year in January-July 2017, reaching 1.598 million; its seat load factor droped by 2.9 percentage points to 86.9%.

Nordwind Airlines is a Russian scheduled and charter airline.

The company is headquartered in Moscow, with its main hub at Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Nordwind Airlines primarily operates service between airports in Russia and holiday destinations around the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Nordwind Airlines was founded in August 2008 by the Russian and Turkish branches of tour operator Pegas Touristik, initially operating 3 Boeing 757-200 aircraft to/from 6 cities.

Since then, the fleet has been greatly expanded, including the introduction of the Airbus A321 and the Boeing 767-300.

By 2015, Nordwind operated service to/from 33 cities.

In 2017, the company expanded its fleet with 2 A330s.

The number of passengers transported was as follows:

Year Passengers
2008 20,000
2009 555,000
2010 1.2 million
2011 1.7 million
2012 2.2 million
2013 3.4 million
2014 4.4 million


Nordwind operates service to Europe, Middle East and Africa,South America and Asia.



Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: Nordwind Airlines Wants Two Boeing 777-300ERs

Russian carrier Nordwind Airlines is leasing two Boeing 777-300ER widebody airliners from Dubai-based lessor DAE Capital,part of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.

The aircraft were previously operated by EVA Air of Taiwan, DAE Capital reports.

To implement its feeder strategy, which covers 200 destinations, in the coming fall-winter season, Nordwind Airlines continues to expand its widebody fleet and is preparing to put two Boeing 777-300s into operation.

The first of the two aircraft is to arrive at the airline’s home base Sheremetyevo on August 31. Following the requisite customs procedures, in early September the airliner will start performing charter flights from Moscow.

The carrier will receive the second aircraft next week.

The two Boeings, to be registered as VP-BJL and VP-BJO, were built in 2005. They will become the first airliners in Nordwind’s fleet to have a three-class cabin layout - 312 seats in total: 38 in business, 63 in premium economy, and 211 in coach.

Nordwind already operates four Boeing 777-200s, which seat 393 passengers in two classes.

The new addition will bring the carrier’s total fleet up to 22 aircraft. It also has Airbus A330-200s, A321s.

Additional four airframes are expected to be delivered by year-end.

Nordwind’s passenger traffic grew 85.4% year-on-year in January-July 2017, reaching 1.598 million; its seat load factor droped by 2.9 percentage points to 86.9%.



Tourism Observer

EGYPT: EgyptAir Agreed With Boeing For Eight 737-800

EgyptAir has agreed a deal with Boeing for eight more 737-800s. The first aircraft will be delivered to the Cairo-based airline in February with all eight in situ by December next year. Finance for the acquisition is being provided by Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE). EgyptAir currently operates 20 737-800s.

“The delivery of this new order will help us maintain EgyptAir’s global flight schedule and continue to deliver a consistently great performance for our customers,” said EgyptAir Chairman and CEO Safwat Musallam. “The new aircraft will help us in unlocking new international routes, thus providing a springboard for network expansion in the years to come.”

Marty Bentrott, Vice President of Sales for Middle East, Russia and Central Asia, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, added: “Our relationship with EgyptAir started 50 years ago with a 707 and we are proud to see that relationship grow with the addition of eight Next-Generation 737-800s, financed by another important Boeing customer, DAE.”

OMAN: Oman Air In Deal With Dubai Aerospace Enterprise

As Oman Air continues its ambitious fleet and network expansion plan, the airline has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) for the sale and leaseback of two new B737-800 aircraft.

The first of the two aircraft was delivered on July 25 and the second is expected to arrive at Muscat this month.

Under Oman Air’s expansion programme, launched late 2014, the national carrier of Oman is in the process of increasing its fleet size to 70 aircraft by 2020. At that point, Oman Air’s fleet will comprise 45 narrow-body aircraft and 25 wide-body aircraft, which will fly to an anticipated 75 global destinations. Since October 2014, Oman Air has received 12 new B737s, of which seven are the -800 variant and five are -900 variant. Each is currently deployed on routes from Muscat to destinations in the GCC region, in the wider Middle East and on the South Asian sub-continent.

Abdulrahman Al-Busaidy, deputy CEO and chief commercial officer of Oman Air, said: “By expanding the size of our fleet, Oman Air is able to offer many more people the opportunity of experiencing our award-winning inflight products and services, as well as our exemplary on-time performance. Our B737 aircraft serve as the backbone of our fleet and we are extremely pleased to have agreed the sale and leaseback arrangement with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.

“On behalf of Oman Air, I would like to thank DAE’s highly professional team of experts. We now look forward to welcoming our customers aboard these brand-new B737-800 airliners.”

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is a globally recognised aerospace company headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Formed in 2006, DAE has grown rapidly since its inception and the company now holds an aircraft leasing portfolio of 76 aircraft worth approximately $4 billion.

Firoz Tarapore, chief executive officer of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, said: “As a world leader in aircraft leasing, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is delighted to have agreed this sale and leaseback agreement with Oman Air. The airline is expanding at an impressive rate and we look forward to working with Oman Air again, should future opportunities arise.”