Taiwanese national flag carrier China Airlines is looking to sell two Airbus A350-900s for leaseback. The news out today comes after the Taipei Taoyuan International Airport-headquartered airline agreed to sell and leaseback five Airbus A330-300s earlier in May.
According to FlightGlobal, the deadline for receiving bids on the widebodies is June 1.
FlightGlobal reports that one of the sources who received China Airlines’ request for proposal (RFP) said that the airline is seeking an average lease term of 144 months. While not mentioning the aircraft in question, it is believed that they were both manufactured in 2017.
The second source who happens to be a banker invited to provide financing for the lease said that he looks upon China Airlines as having excellent credit.
According to data compiled by aviation website Planespotters.net, China Airlines has 14 A350-900s delivered by the European planemaker between 2016 and 2018. The Taiwanese carrier also holds an option with Airbus for a further six A350-900s.
In other news related to Taiwan’s largest airline, CNN reported a few days ago that China Airlines was thinking about a name change because people would associate the airline with mainland China rather than Taiwan. This is all due to the coronavirus and the Taiwanese nation wishing not to be so closely associated with China.
China Airlines serves 160 destinations in 29 countries. The SkyTeam Alliance member is owned by the China Aviation Development Foundation, which is owned by Taiwan’s government.
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