DUSHANBE, November 3, Asia-Plus — Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, has taken another Boeing 737-500 on a finance lease, according to the airline’s press service.
The aircraft was ferried to the Dushanbe airport from Lithuania on October 30.
The -500 series was offered, due to customer demand, as a modern and direct replacement of the 737-200. It incorporated the improvements of the 737 Classic series; allowing longer routes with fewer passengers to be more economical than with the 737-300. It accommodates up to 132 passengers.
Finance leasing, also known as “capital leasing,” is a longer-term arrangement in which the operator comes closer to effectively “owning” the aircraft. It involves a more complicated transaction in which a lessor, often a special purpose company (SPC) or partnership, purchases the aircraft through a combination of debt and equity financing, and then leases it to the operator. The operator may have the option to purchase the aircraft at the expiration of the lease, or may automatically receive the aircraft at the expiration of the lease.
It is already the second Boeing 737-500 ferried from Lithuania last month. As it had been reported earlier, Boeing 737-500 taken on the finance lease under an agreement reached between Tajik Air and Avia Asset Management was ferried to the Dushanbe airport from Lithuania on October 3.
Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, Avia Asset Management is the only company in the Baltic States engaged in long-term aircraft lease business. Avia Asset Management purchases modern western types of the aircraft and leases all of its aircraft to clients in the Baltics and CIS. Company specializes in medium-haul and narrow-bodied Boeing 737 and Boeing 757 aircraft. It is also offering aircraft fleet management, re-marketing, aircraft technical maintenance and repair, aviation specialists’ initial and continued professional training services.
At present 11 crews of the company, retrained for Boeing aircraft, operate flights to the CIS and far abroad countries, the press service said. However, a number of backup crews will be trained for Western type aircraft. Tajik Air plans to take another Boeing accommodating 216 passengers until the end of this year.
Based in Dushanbe Airport, Tajik Air is currently the largest air carrier in Tajikistan, serving international and domestic destinations. Modernization of the Tajik national air company began in 2006. Tajik Air took the first Boeing 737-200 on a dry lease and later, it took four other Boeings on the dry lease. The existing Soviet-era Tu-154s will have outlived their service life within the next few years.
