Air transport is a fast-growing sector.
Flexibility is an important fleet optimization tool, which enables us to adjust capacity to demand as closely as possible.
This flexibility is obtained through:
- contract clauses which enable airlines to adjust delivery deadlines, within the limits of contractual notice, and/or to modify the version delivered within an aircraft family;
- operating lease contracts: this system enables Air France to leverage each year some 5% of its capacity by returning aircraft or extending the lease. AIR FRANCE KLM finances about one-third of its fleet with operating leases.
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Leasing and purchasing: how does it work?
An airline acquires aircraft by purchasing or leasing them.
1) The purchase is either financed by operating cash flow or by the implementation of a financing arrangement whose main formulas are:
- leasing: a company buys an aircraft and then leases it to Air France for 12 to 15 years. The economic advantage is to exercise a purchasing option which makes the Company the owner of the goods at the end of the financing period.
- A long-term mortgage loan contracted with a bank, using the aircraft as collateral.
2) Operating lease: the lessor, owner of the aircraft, places the aircraft at the airline’s disposal for a fixed period of time (6 years on average), after which the aircraft is returned to the lessor.
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