AirAsia To Sell Jet Leasing Business

Malaysian low cost airline AirAsia has agreed to sell its aircraft leasing business in a deal worth USD$1.2 billion.

The agreement will initially see Fly Leasing, Nomura Babcock & Brown and Incline Aviation, all managed by San Francisco-based BBAM, acquire a package of 132 Airbus aircraft from AirAsia and its Asia Aviation Capital leasing unit.

The BBAM-managed companies will also acquire options for 50 A320neo-family aircraft yet to be delivered. AirAsia will lease most of the aircraft back from the companies.

AirAsia will also make a $50 million investment in Incline Aviation as part of its consideration.

“The AirAsia Group is delighted to begin this new, long-term partnership with Steve [Zissis] and the rest of the team at BBAM,” AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes said.

“This is a perfect outcome to a strategy we started in 2004… We have now disposed most of our physical non-core assets and we are thrilled to be embarking on our new digital strategy, which will build a very valuable group of assets,” Fernandes added.

BBAM CEO Steve Zissis said “We passionately believe BBAM’s unique structure enables us to offer unparalleled fleet planning solutions to our airline customers by enabling us to participate in large scale transactions that few of our peers can deliver.”

BBAM currently has over 400 aircraft under management at over 200 airlines.