Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In October 2014, Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Sergei Khramakin, President of the Russian State Transportation Leasing Company signed a financing cooperation agreement. In December 2014, ICBC Leasing and Transaero — a state-owned Russian airline — signed an agreement to lease 6 Airbus A321 passenger jets. The A321 is the first Airbus medium-range aircraft in the airline’s fleet. It is configured with two classes and can accommodate 184 passengers. Transaero intended to use the planes for high-demand medium-range routes. In July 2015, Transaero received the first delivery of the aircraft. The aircraft had a passenger capacity of 170 seats. The three class cabin configuration included 4 seats in Imperial class, 8 seats in Business class and 158 seats in Economy class. However, Transaero filed for bankruptcy in October 2015 and it is unclear what happened to the leasing agreement. During the bankruptcy, Aeroflot took some of Transaero's leased planes but it is not known if the A321s were among those taken.
Staff comments
1. AidData treats this lease as a loan. A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee (user) to pay the lessor (owner) for use of an asset. The lessor is the legal owner of the asset, while the lessee obtains the right to use the asset in return for regular rental payments. Under a capital lease (a financial arrangement where the lessee/borrower uses an asset and pays regular installments plus interest to the lender/lessor), rental payments are usually classified as interest and obligation payments, similarly to a mortgage (with the interest calculated each rental period on the outstanding obligation balance).