Castlelake, a global alternative investment firm with 17 years of experience investing in, financing and managing aviation assets, announced the completion of the sale and leaseback of four Boeing 787 aircraft from Scoot with a 12-year lease term. These aircraft have been acquired by a subsidiary of Castlelake Aviation Limited.
Scoot is a low-cost carrier based in Singapore and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Group, servicing routes across Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Europe. To date, Scoot has carried over 67 million passengers, and owns a fleet of 60 aircraft, comprising widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners and single-aisle Airbus A320 family aircraft. This transaction underscores Scoot’s commitment to continue strengthening its business through fleet renewals with trusted partners for a better match of capacity to demand.
Castlelake has been an active participant in the aviation sector since the firm’s inception in 2005 and has invested over $17 billion in aviation opportunities. Recent activity includes the close of the firm’s fourth aviation fund, Castlelake Aviation IV Stable Yield L.P., at $1.5 billion; and the formation of Castlelake Aviation Limited, a corporate lessor of commercial aircraft that will finance a portfolio of modern, young, fuel-efficient aircraft.
BNP Paribas and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) separately provided debt financing for two aircraft each.
Goshawk delivers A320 to Heston Airlines
Goshawk, the Dublin-based global aircraft lessor, announced the delivery of one A320 aircraft to Heston Airlines. The A320 was successfully delivered to the Lithuanian ACMI operator on 22 November. Stephen O’Dwyer, Airline Sales & Marketing, EMEA at Goshawk said: “We are delighted to deliver the first aircraft by Goshawk to Heston, marking the beginning of an exciting partnership as they immediately place the aircraft into operations to serve their expanding customer base.”
Jonas Rinkauskas, CEO of Heston Airlines, reacted to the news, stating: “The addition of this aircraft will help us achieve our target of building a larger, modern, fuel-efficient fleet. This in turn will enable us to deliver our products and services to a wide network of ACMI and Charter clients.”