Greece’s leading airline, Aegean Airlines is preparing the sale of bonds on March 5 and 7 to raise over 226 million dollars for down payments on new A320neo Airbus aircraft and the construction of a new pilot training centre.
The airline said that the implementation of the transaction will depend on market conditions and according to the public offering prospectus, about 30 percent of the issue will be allocated to retail investors, while 70 percent will go to “qualified investors”.
Aegean picked Airbus in March last year for an order of up to 42 aircraft worth $5 billion in one of the biggest investments by a private Greek company since the country’s debt crisis erupted in 2010.
The down payments are due from the first quarter through to the last quarter of 2023 for new generation A320neo and A321 Airbus jets.
Deliveries of the new planes are expected to start in the first half of 2020 and conclude by the end of 2024.
The carrier also plans to use 14 percent of the proceeds or up to 27.5 million euros to build a new 12,000 square metre training centre with flight simulators for its flight crews at the Athens International Airport (AIA).
The Greek airline recently announced seven new destinations and increased capacity. Aegean plans to increase the capacity of its international network by 700,000 thousand seats, reaching a total of 10.3 million seats in the international network and 17.7m seats in total, including the domestic network. Increased capacity is offered throughout the year, with the growth stemming mainly from the increase during the winter months as well as at the beginning and at the end of the summer season.
Dimitris Gerogiannis, CEO of Aegean, said, “We consistently create new destination options for our passengers, along with the offer of new services. We consistently and constantly respond to the significant new investments of tourism entrepreneurs who offer new upgraded hotel units, trying also from our side to contribute to the extension of the tourism period. This effort will allow us to exploit our own investments in aircrafts and technology. The coordinated contribution and investment from industry stakeholders together with the right State policies that would promote sector competitiveness can lead to the further development of Greece’s Tourism product.”
*Main source: Reuters