"Airbus prepares to double vendor financing"

SOURCE: Financial Times | October 21, 2008
By Kevin Done in London and Justin Baer in New York

Airbus is preparing to double the amount of vendor financing it offers to about €2bn ($2.62bn) next year to support commercial aircraft sales and maintain deliveries as its customers struggle to obtain funding from traditional sources. Airlines find growing difficulties in obtaining funding from banks and lessors. Boeing also said it was preparing more support for customers. "This is the single-worst credit environment we've seen," Patrick Käufer, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, said on Tuesday during the Aviation Finance Summit 2008 conference in New York. "A lot is driven by lenders' unwillingness to provide liquidity." (Click here to read more)

"Midway could go private by yearend, FAA official says"

SOURCE: Crain’s | October 22, 2008
By Paul Merrion

Chicago's $2.52-billion Midway Airport privatization deal is expected to win final clearance by yearend, the Federal Aviation Administration's top airports official said Wednesday. "I think the deal will be approved," said D. Kirk Shaffer, associate administrator for airports at the FAA. He added that he "can't say that conclusively" because the FAA has not yet received final documents from the city showing that the winning bidder was a group led by a unit of the Vancouver Airport Authority, Citibank and John Hancock Life Insurance. But the FAA worked closely with the city last summer and reviewed in advance the structure of the deal, which all bidders were required to bid on intact. “The way they did it was pretty smart," Mr. Shaffer said in an interview after he appeared at the Aviation Finance Summit 2008, a conference in New York. (Click here to read more)

"Aviation financing seen harder to come by in 2009"

SOURCE: Associated Press | October 22, 2008
By Greg Stec

Some airlines and aircraft leasing companies may find it hard to get financing to buy aircraft by the beginning of next year, and a number of orders may be canceled or put off, industry executives attending an aviation finance conference said this week. While many international airlines and leasing companies have credit agreements with banks in place that predate the current credit freeze, others could have trouble getting financing for aircraft purchases as soon as the first quarter of 2009 with lenders more cautious as the global economy sags. (Click here to read more)