If that headline seems a bit odd, so is the situation. Irish aircraft leasing company Amedeo, which makes its money by buying planes and leasing them to airlines to operate under their own colors. But it only works if someone wants your planes.
Amedeo owns 8 Airbus A380 superjumbos, and is on the hook for another 20 from Airbus. But the airlines which leased its existing A380s have not renewed their leases, and there are no takers for the rest. And so, the company finds itself forced to become an airline and start hunting passengers.
And, they’ve come up with a novel scheme. The company believes that through code-sharing and other schemes where the name on your ticket isn’t necessarily the one on the plane, people are prepared to, say, buy a ticket from Airbnb, or Viking River Cruises, or other non-airline but travel-related companies, knowing that someone else is flying the plane.
The company believes that the A380, often a money-losing plane because of its four engines and space given over to first- and busineness-class amenities can be flown at a profit as a single-class plane with more seats. It will apply next year for an air operator’s license.
The leasing model, by the way, works well for airlines and lessors, generally. Rapidly-growing airlines can get new planes for operating money, without capital investment. And the lessors, in the long run, take in more money in leases than the planes cost. It’s only when you’ve got a fleet of planes that’s unpopular with airlines that it breaks down.
