Lessor Avolon cancels order for 27 Boeing 737 MAX 8s in the 2020-2022 timeframe

Aircraft lessor Avolon announced the cancellation of an additional 27 Boeing 737 MAX planes after cancelling 75 of the jets in April.

And removed commitment to acquire 1 A330neo aircraft due to deliver in 2022 and deferred 3 A320neo family aircraft from 2020/21 to 2022;

Dómhnal Slattery, Avolon CEO, commented: “Q2 was a challenging period for the aviation sector as COVID-19 impacted the industry on an unprecedented global scale, bringing with it continued uncertainty around the pace and timing of a recovery. The months ahead will be difficult, but we have the experience and balance sheet to manage through these headwinds.

In Q2 we continued to reinforce our strong capital position and have maintained over US$5 billion of total liquidity through the first half of this year.

Decisive measures to strengthen our capital position included the opportunistic buy back of US$639 million of our unsecured bonds at a discount to par, in so doing reducing our near-term debt maturities. More significantly, we have reduced our near-term commitments by over 140 aircraft since the start of the year.

These actions provide us with the capital strength to manage through this market backdrop and to support our customers through the recovery.”