News
Gulf Air and Oman Air consider A330 fleet future
September 21st 2018
Oman Air is in advanced talks with India’s Jet Airways regarding the potential wet-lease of three Jet A330 aircraft, as well as an unspecified number of B737NGs, the Financial Express has reported. Read More »
Jet Airways has four A330-300s and four A330-200s. The airline owns three of the -200s.
The -200s would be a good fit for Oman Air. The Muscat-based carrier already operates four A330-200s on flights to Europe and Southeast Asia.
Oman Air wants to grow its long-haul footprint; Jet is having too much capacity in the market and facing a severe liquidity crunch.
Jet has been struggling financially for years. For the financial year ended March 30, the airline announced a net loss of US$90.3 million, down from an INR15 billion net gain in the previous year. Jet has posted overall losses in nine out of the last eleven fiscal years. In the latest quarter, to June 30, Jet reported a net loss of 13.2 billion (US$198 million), reversed from an INR53.5 million profit in the corresponding year-ago period.
Jet deputy CEO and CFO, Amit Agarwal, has previously said the carrier was evaluating sale-and-leaseback transactions for the sixteen aircraft it owns, comprising said three A330-200s, ten B777-300ERs and three B737NGs.
“Even on a conservative basis the value of these aircraft would not be roughly less than US$750 million to US$800 million and the debt outstanding is about INR19 billion rupees or nearly US$260 million. So, clearly, there is a large equity sitting there,” Agarwal said.
Jet has previously leased B777 and A330 aircraft to Turkish Airlines, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Airways.
Separately, Gulf Air this week said it was reconsidering whether to decommission its A330-200s. Initially, the Bahraini flag carrier had said it would retire its A330s with the addition of ten B787-9s to the fleet.
The airline has taken delivery of three Dreamliners this year and is currently deploying them on double daily flights to London’s Heathrow Airport and Bangkok.
“We’re still in the process of final evaluation about our A330 fleet,” said Gulf Air CEO, Krešimir Kučko. “If a decision is taken to keep them, then of course we will include a retrofit of the cabin,” he added.
The carrier is looking at a steep long-haul capacity increase should it keep its six A330s and add all ten B787-9s.
