Atlas Air, Titan secure $500mn to finance more conversions

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and its subsidiary Titan Aviation Holdings have secured USD500 million through two separate financing agreements, they announced in a statement on November 5. Titan Aircraft Investments, a joint venture created by Titan Aviation and Bain Capital Credit in December 2019, has entered into a USD300 million warehouse financing deal (a loan using existing inventory or commodities as collateral) with institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and BNP Paribas. Precisely what the collateral would be was not specified. Separately, the joint venture has also entered into a USD200 million bridge financing agreement with London-based financial services provider volofin Capital Management. The warehouse facility will finance Titan Aircraft Investments’ acquisition of freighter aircraft leases, while the bridge loan will finance the conversion of passenger aircraft into freighter configuration. “These facilities will enable Titan Aircraft Investments to serve the strong market demand for freighters and airfreight capacity, supported by the rapid expansion of express and e-commerce networks worldwide,” declared Michael T Steen, who is both president and chief executive of Titan Aviation Holdings and executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Atlas Air Worldwide. Also on November 5, Atlas Air Worldwide announced a third-quarter net profit of USD74.05 million, an increase from the USD59.97 million posted for the third quarter of 2019. Quarterly operating revenue stood at USD809.89 million versus USD648.54 million a year ago. The Atlas Air (5Y, New York JFK) parent confirmed that its customer base had expanded, including the addition of Alibaba Group’s Cainiao, Hewlett-Packard, and “several large global freight forwarders”, many of which are on three-year contracts. It has also expanded operations for Amazon.com, for which three more B737-800(BCF)s have been flying since September via Atlas subsidiary Southern Air (9S, Cincinnati Int’l), bringing the total to eight of the aircraft type and “complementing the large fleet of B767s that we have with them,” CEO John Dietrich said.