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Chorus expands leasing portfolio with Malindo Air


October 7, 2019  By Wings Staff

Chorus Aviation Inc. announced today that it has acquired two ATR72-600 aircraft on lease to Malindo Air, a Malaysian operator forming part of the Lion Air Group. The deal was done through its subsidiary Chorus Aviation Capital (CAC), which earlier this year also delivered two new ATR 72-600 aircraft for lease to Malindo Air, bringing the total number of aircraft leased by CAC to the Lion Air Group to five.

With these two newest acquisitions, CAC has announced 581 commitments to date for its regional aircraft leasing business. Established in 2017, CAC currently has relationships with 15 regional airlines based in 15 countries.

“We are delighted to expand our relationship with Malindo Air and the Lion Air Group in the fast-growing and increasingly significant Southeast Asian market,” said Steve Ridolfi, president, Chorus Aviation Capital. “So far this year, we’ve secured lease commitments for 24 aircraft and continue to evaluate several additional opportunities.”

Ridolfi continues to explain that CAC has grown the value of its leasing portfolio to approximately US$1.1 billion with US$815.0 million in future contract lease revenue. Upon the completion of the newest Malindo Air transaction, and four pending aircraft deliveries to other customers, CAC’s portfolio will include 46 turboprops and 12 regional jets.

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When the aircraft earning leasing revenue under the Capacity Purchase Agreement are added to the aircraft in CAC’s portfolio, Chorus’ total leased portfolio grows to 124 aircraft valued at approximately US$2.0 billion. Future aircraft leasing commitments in the Regional Aviation Services segment consist of nine CRJ900s to be received in 2020 and 10 ESPs that are planned for completion between 2019 and 2022.

“Since the launch of the business, we have grown the regional aircraft leasing segment by an average of approximately 20 aircraft per year,” said Joe Randell, president and CEO, Chorus. “In the near term, we have the capacity to continue with a similar rate of growth through a combination of additional debt and internally generated cash flows to fund the equity portion of the aircraft acquisitions.”

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