Finnair will use A320-200 wet-leased from SmartLynx in September/October

Norway's Widerøe considers fleet renewal plans A, B, and C

Finnair raises $400mn through A350 sales/lease-backs

Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) has raised over USD400 million through a sale-and-leaseback transaction covering four A350-900s.

The airline said it sold the aircraft to GECAS and Gilead Aviation, a JV between GECAS and PIMCO, which will lease them back to the airline on 12-year contracts on average. The airline confirmed to ch-aviation that it sold OH-LWK (msn 113), OH-LWL (msn 134), and OH-LWM (msn 264) to GECAS. Gilead Aviation bought OH-LWN (msn 273).

Following the transaction, out of Finnair's sixteen A350-900s, the company owns five and leases the remaining eleven from GECAS (five, including one via Gilead Aviation), Nomura Babcock & Brown (four), Avolon, and Stratos (one each). The carrier has a further three units of the type on firm order from Airbus with deliveries due in the second quarter of 2022, the fourth quarter of 2024, and the first quarter of 2025.

Finnair said that it would use the proceeds to refinance its existing debt and close the undrawn credit line of EUR175 million euros (USD205 million)....

EU court to hear Ryanair action on aid to Aegean Airlines

The Court of Justice of the European Union’s Luxembourg-based General Court has said it will hear a review, initiated by Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l), of the European Commission’s approval of state aid to Aegean Airlines (A3, Athens Int'l).

In Ryanair’s latest legal challenge to bailouts handed to European carriers since the outbreak of Covid-19, the General Court agreed to assess the Irish low-cost carrier’s “action for annulment” against the European competition regulator’s decision to back the Greek government’s aid package.

In December, the commission backed a Greek state grant of EUR120 million euros (USD142 million) to the privately-owned flag carrier, judging it to be in line with the bloc’s loosened Covid-era state aid rules. The sum “does not exceed the estimated damage caused to the airline between March 23 and June 30” of last year, it said in its statement at the time.

The aid was conditional on Aegean Airlines undertaking a share capital increase of EUR60 million (USD71 million), which it announced it completed in June.

However, the court...

New Zealand's Sounds Air firms order for ES-19s

Sounds Air (S8, Picton) is planning to induct at least three 19-seater Heart Aerospace ES-19 all-electric aircraft by 2026 as its first step in transitioning to a zero-emissions fleet by around 2030.

"We've been on this journey for about two years now. We're now at that point where we confirmed our orders and we are just that little bit closer to providing zero-emission services to our customers," Chairman and Director Rhyan Wardman said in an interview with Radio New Zealand.

The regional specialist plans to initially deploy the aircraft on its cross-Cook Strait trunk route from Blenheim to Wellington. However, Wardman said that as the technology matures and the Es-19t's range increases, Sounds Air will also look at other, longer sectors.

"By 2030, the next generation of electric aircraft will be able to fulfil all the sectors that we fly," Wardman said, underlining that neither the recharge time nor the range were expected to hinder the type's operational deployment.

The New Zealand carrier currently operates four Cessna (single turboprop)...