On Friday, easyJet announced it had completed the sale and leaseback of 23 aircraft, raising £608m, and said it would look to keep raising cash as it battles with the coronavirus crisis. Tony McDonough reports
Low-cost airline easyJet has raised more than £2.4bn since March in a drive to strengthen its balance sheet as uncertainty continues over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The carrier announced on Friday it has completed the sale and leaseback of five Airbus A321neo aircraft for £203m with Jin Shan 37 Ireland Company, subsidiary of BOCOMM Leasing. It has now completed the sale and leaseback of 23 aircraft, raising £608m.
Airlines have suffered a torrid time due to the coronavirus epidemic with the European flight network virtually shut down in August. A number of airlines, including Alitalia, Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, SAS and TAP, have sought state bailouts.
The two biggest airlines at Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA),, easyJet and Ryanair, already had strong balance sheets going into the crisis and have looked to raise extra cash without seeking Government bailouts.
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In normal times both carriers, between them, operate more than 60 routes out of LJLA. Over the past few weeks they have started to resume flights from Liverpool and, as of early August, easyJet had resumed flying to 22 destinations and Ryanair 27.
However, with COVID-29 cases on the rise again in both Spain and France, the UK Government has imposed new restrictions on people travelling into the UK from this countries. This could cause further disruption to flights and more lost revenues.
Consequently, easyJet said on Friday that it would continue to look at new funding opportunities to protect itself against further turbulence due to the pandemic.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange, it said: “Following the successful conclusion of this sale and leaseback programme, easyJet has now raised over £2.4bn since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This comprises £400m from drawing down our revolving credit facility, £600m from the UK government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility, £400m from two term loans, the £608m in proceeds from the sale and leaseback programme and £419m of equity issuance.
“EasyJet will continue to review its liquidity position on a regular basis and will continue to assess any further funding opportunities.”