Skift Take
When your year-over-year traffic is down 97 percent for a two-week period, you do anything to raise cash. United's deal with the Bank of China shows the airline is exercising all its options.
United Airlines will sell and lease back 22 planes to Bank of China (BOC) Aviation, a statement from the aircraft investor released to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange said on Sunday.
The deal involves six Boeing 787-9 aircraft and 16 Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft from United Airlines, the statement said.
The Singapore-based BOC Aviation did not reveal how much the purchase was worth but said the planes would be leased back to United on long-term agreements.
United said on Wednesday it had reduced its flight schedule in May by 90% and expects similar cuts for June as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. airline also said it flew less than 200,000 people in the first two weeks of April, a 97% drop from the more than 6 million people it flew during the same time in 2019.
BOC Aviation, which focuses on aircraft leasing, has a fleet of 567 planes owned, managed or on order as at the end of March, the statement said
The transaction was finalised on Friday and the deal is expected to close later this year, the statement said.
This article was written by Scott Murdoch from Reuters and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].
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Tags: coronavirus, united airlines
Photo credit: United sold Boeing 737-9 MAX jets like the one pictured here as part of its deal with Bank of China Aviation. Skift