AerFin will acquire Saudi Arabian Airlines’ (Saudia) fleet of 15 Embraer E170-LR aircraft, including all the spare parts, engines, tooling and equipment necessary to support the entire fleet.
The E170s, which have commonality with E175 and E190s, entered into Saudia operation from December 2005, and accumulated more than 350,000 flight hours over an average of 10 years with the airline. The last of the aircraft completed its last flight on December 19, 2016. Deliveries to AerFin are expected to commence in Summer 2017.
The transaction, remarketed by Airstream International Group Limited, is a planned element of Saudia’s fleet growth and renewal plan, one of many initiatives in its transformation programme and strategic plan SV2020. Saudia will introduce a record 30 new aircraft in 2017.
AerFin continues its focus on helping regional jet operators both achieve more predictable and lower costs. It will lease some of the aircraft, providing operators with guaranteed spare engine, rotable component and tooling support under innovative flight hour agreements.
AerFin CEO Bob James commented, “AerFin is evolving very quickly as we focus on delivering the innovative solutions regional jet operators need to be competitive, from usage based pricing to whole aircraft leasing. The Saudia E170 fleet is barely 11 years old and, while we expect some aircraft to be reduced to spares, 8 aircraft had D checks within the past 12 months and provide excellent lease candidates.”
AerFin aims to offer extremely attractive lease rentals on the E170s gained through the capital cost benefits from such a fleet acquisition.
James added, “Investing in this product will position AerFin as the leading EJet spares and aftermarket services provider. Securing this volume and quality of product was key to delivering on our strategy to offer the lowest possible EJet spares maintenance costs world-wide. By expanding our BeyondFleetServicesTM programme (pioneered on the A340) to the EJet fleet, AerFin will be the preferred partner of choice for regional EJet operators.”
For more information, please visit www.aerfin.com/embraer