Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) (SIA) reported having raised more than $1.5 billion through sale-and-leaseback transactions for 11 aircraft.
SIA announced having completed sale-and-leaseback transactions (S&LB) for 11 aircraft, including 7 Airbus A350-900s and 4 Boeing 787-10s, which helped the air carrier to strengthen its liquidity position by more than $1.5 billion (SGD2 billion). The additional liquidity from the recent S&LB deal reinforced the company’s ability to navigate the pandemic impact despite the modest prospects of growth of the passenger capacity in the coming months.
“We will continue to respond nimbly to the evolving marketing conditions, and be ready to capture all possible growth opportunities as we recover from this crisis,” Goh Choon Phong, the Chief Executive officer at SIA was quoted saying in the airline‘s statement.
While the air carrier continues to explore additional measures to raise its liquidity, it still has access to more than $1.58 billion (SGD2.1billion) in committed credit lines. The company also considers taking up an opportunity to raise an additional $4.66 billion (SGD6.2 billion) in additional convertible bonds until June 2021.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in early spring 2020, Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) has replenished the balance sheet with a total of $11.56 billion (SGD15.4 billion) raised from the carrier’s rights issue, convertible bonds and notes as well as new committed credit lines and a short-term unsecured loan.
In March 2021, SIA Group reported a decline in the month’s overall passenger demand by more than 90% year-on-year. Singapore Airlines’ (SIA1) (SINGY) capacity was down 51% in March 2021 compared to the same month the previous year, while passenger traffic numbers fell by 89%.