In June, regional aircraft lessor Nordic Aviation Capital announced its exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Its reorganization plan, which the bankruptcy court accepted in April, eliminated nearly $4.1 billion (€4.08 billion) of debt and left it with access to around $537 million in additional capital to fund operations and growth opportunities.
NAC has emerged with a clean slate and new deals on the table
Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) is a leading regional aircraft lessor serving more than 70 customers in around 45 countries. It has a fleet of 390 owned and on-order aircraft, which includes Airbus A220, ATR 42/72, De Havilland Dash 8, Embraer E-Jets and Mitsubishi CRJ900/1000 aircraft. Its customers include Breeze Airways, Air Canada, Aeromexico, Azul, Kenya Airways, British Airways and Spicejet. While it continued to operate throughout the Chapter 11 process, Nordic Aviation Capital picked up the pace in July, announcing new deals with four operators for 15 aircraft.
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On July 7, NAC announced two new leasing deals with LOT Polish Airlines and Greek airline Olympic Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegean Airlines. NAC has leased four ATR 72-600s to Olympic Air in a package that included a fleet rollover of leased De Havilland DHC-8-Q400s. Fleet data from ch-aviation.com shows that Olympic Air has 21 turboprop aircraft, with 15 currently active. The total fleet includes three ATR 42-600s, eight ATR 72-600s, two De Havilland DHC-8-100s and eight DHC-8-Q400s. The airline operates domestically, flying to 31 destinations throughout the mainland and the Greek islands from its main base at Athens International airport (ATH).
LOT Polish Airlines operates a diverse fleet of aircraft, including turboprops, regional jets, narrowbodies and widebodies. The new lease agreement with NAC covers a mix of seven Embraer E175 and E190 aircraft and includes a fleet rollover of leased De Havilland DHC-8-Q400s. LOT has 12 Dash 8s in its fleet, along with 18 Embraer ERJ 170 and 22 ERJ 190 aircraft. The balance of the fleet comprises five Boeing B737 MAX 8, six B737-800, eight B787-8 and seven B787-9 airplanes. The airline is based at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) and operates to 94 destinations in 49 countries.
Regionals fly very diverse fleets that match their routes
On July 11, NAC announced two more deals, this time with Scotland's Loganair and South Africa's Airlink. Airlink, a scheduled carrier based at Johannesburg O.R.Tambo Airport (JNB), is leasing three Embraer E195s from NAC. Airlink is the largest Embraer operator in Africa with 51 aircraft, 17 EMB-135, 11 EMB-140, three ERJ 170 and 20 ERJ 190. The airline is adding more capacity as it seeks to fill the market gap from Comair's demise, which suspended flights on May 31 this year. That hole has grown larger with the acceleration of demand for air travel in South Africa, and the airline is looking to the higher capacity E 195s to fuel its growth. Apart from the Embraers, Airlink has one Boeing B737-300 and six BAe Jetstream 41 aircraft.
The fourth deal was placing one ATR 72-500F freighter with Scotland's Loganair. According to ch-aviation.com, Loganair has seven freighters in its fleet, a mix of two Saab 340A(F), two Saab 340B(F) and three ATR 72-500F aircraft. The balance of the 44 airplane fleet contains ATR 42/72, De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, Embraer ERJ-145 and the legendary Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander aircraft. Loganair serves more than 45 destinations across the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and Europe, including summer seasonal flights to Norway.
NAC's activity this month shows how active the regional sector can be and how the expertise of specialist lessors, such as NAC and TrueNoord, supports regional airlines. What has been your latest experience in a regional aircraft?