Additionally, Emirates has signed a multi-year lease extension with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise for four Boeing 777Fs in its existing fleet. “Based on these investments, by December 2026, Emirates SkyCargo expects to operate a fleet of 21 production-built Boeing 777 freighters, significantly expanding its current fleet of 11 units,” the statement added.

The airline said it also remains invested in converting ten-passenger Boeing 777-3000ERs into freighters for further capacity and fleet growth. As part of its vision for the next phase of its development, the airline said it plans to decide by the end of this calendar year on its future freighter fleet for 2028/29 and beyond, with the Boeing 777-8F and Airbus A350-1000F as top contenders.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of of Emirates Airline and Group, said, “We are investing in new freighter aircraft to meet surging demand and provide our customers around the world with even more flexibility, connectivity and options to leverage market opportunity.”

He said, “Demand for Emirates’ air cargo services has been booming. This reflects Dubai’s growing prominence as a preferred and trusted global logistics hub and the success of Emirates SkyCargo’s bespoke solutions that address the needs of shippers in different industry sectors.”
Even as it inducts new freighter aircraft into its operations, Emirates’ cargo division will continue to harness the airline’s all-widebody passenger fleet to facilitate the efficient movement of goods worldwide, explained the Dubai-based carrier. Emirates’ fleet mix comprises Boeing 777s, 777-Fs, 747Fs, and Airbus A350s and A380s.
“Emirates continues to set the direction for our industry, and we deeply appreciate the trust they have placed in the Boeing widebwidebodyly to serve as the backbone of their global fleet,” said Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The Dubai government’s plans to expand Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) is set to create the world’s largest hub in terms of capacity. DWC will ultimately be able to process 12 million tonnes of cargo annually. This would support the growth of the nearby Logistics District, which is planned as an international base for global cargo and shipping companies. All this is part of Dubai’s master plan to become the pre-eminent multi-modal cargo hub for air, sea and land connections.

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The company filed with regulators on Tuesday to sell any combination of bonds and shares, known as a shelf registration. Boeing is looking to shore up its balance sheet and boost access to cash, as it tries to avoid getting cut to junk status by bond graders and facing much higher borrowing costs.

“This universal shelf registration provides flexibility for the company to seek a variety of capital options as needed to support the company’s balance sheet over a three year period,” Boeing said in a statement.

The company said that it has a separate new credit agreement in place for $10 billion, giving it “additional short term access to liquidity as we navigate through a challenging environment.”
The added firepower will help Boeing improve its bargaining position with striking workers, who have halted production at key Seattle-area facilities for weeks. Union members are seeking higher wages and a reinstatement of pensions, and talks broke down last week again as both sides dug in on their demands.

The company is also working through quality issues on its top-selling 737 Max jets, under the supervision of regulators who have capped production. The long-delayed 777X program was pushed back further last week as well, to 2026.

Bloomberg reported this month that Boeing was considering a capital increase of at least $10 billion, citing people familiar with the discussions. Should Boeing proceed, a sale of that magnitude would stand to be the biggest by a public company since Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s $12.3 billion sale in June.
“The strike is still going on with no end in sight, so it could definitely be downgraded,” said CreditSights analyst Matt Woodruff said of Boeing’s credit rating. “This buys them a little bit of time.”

Boeing shares rose less than 1% at 10:48 am in New York, as investors weighed the impact of potential dilution along with a stronger balance sheet. The stock has lost 43% in value this year, the second-worst performance among the members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Credit facility
The company has 120 days to draw on the new credit, and any outstanding loans mature within 364 days of the agreement, according to a filing. Boeing hasn’t drawn on the new facility or its existing revolving line, it said. If the planemaker were to tap the new facility, and then raise capital publicly or sell assets, it has to pay back the credit facility immediately.

The shelf registration gives Boeing a number of options for raising money, including selling any combination of common shares, preferred shares, senior bonds and subordinated bonds, among other instruments.

The manufacturer is working to stave off potential ratings downgrades from Moody’s Ratings and S&P Global Ratings, which have both said within the last five weeks that they might cut Boeing’s credit grades to junk status, steps that would boost the company’s interest costs in short order and make Boeing a less attractive investment for some funds.

Boeing revealed late last week that it has only a small buffer on top of the $10 billion of cash and short-term securities that it needs to avoid slipping to junk status. The strike by members of a machinist union in the Pacific Northwest, a crucial hub of Boeing aircraft production, is costing the company more than $1 billion a month even after cost-saving moves, according to an estimate from S&P last week.

The strike is just one of a series of mishaps for a company that has been suffering all year. In January, a freak accident blew a door-size hole into the fuselage of an airborne 737 Max, forcing the company to slow production to fix problems with its manufacturing process. The stock is heading for its worst annual performance since the 2008 financial crisis, and Boeing said last week that it plans to cut 10% of its workforce, equivalent to about 17,000 people.

Rating review
While Boeing finds itself in a protracted crisis, the company still has longer-term prospects. It has a backlog of 5,490 aircraft, representing about half a trillion dollars worth of revenue. That may give investors confidence that cash will flow again once the company gets production back in shape.

And airlines and leasing firms have few alternatives if they want to buy large commercial jetliners: Boeing is part of a global duopoly with Airbus SE.

Obtaining the loan shows that banks are still willing to lend to Boeing. But if the company were to draw on the loan, it would add debt to its balance sheet, which it’s trying to avoid.

There is some precedent for Boeing’s new credit agreement. In early 2020, during the early part of the pandemic, the company entered into a $13 billion credit agreement, in the form of a delayed-dra

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A total of 6.3 crore domestic passengers travelled by air last year, 56.29 percent lower than 2019, Indian aviation regulator DGCA said.

The regulator said that only 73.27 lakh people travelled by air domestically in December last year, which was 43.72 percent lower than in the corresponding period of 2019.

While IndiGo carried 3.25 crore passengers last year, a 51.7 percent share of the total domestic market, SpiceJet flew 93.9 lakh passengers, which is 14.9 percent share of the market, according to data shared by the DGCA.

Air India, GoAir, AirAsia India and Vistara carried 69.32 lakh, 54.38 lakh, 43.87 lakh and 39.39 lakh passengers, respectively, in 2020, the data showed.

The occupancy rate or load factor of six major Indian airlines was between 65.1 percent and 78 percent in December 2020, it said.

“The passenger load factor in the month of December 2020 has shown declining trend compared to the previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

The occupancy rate at SpiceJet was 78 percent last month, the highest among the six major Indian carriers.

India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Indian airlines are allowed to operate a maximum of 80 percent of their pre-COVID-19 domestic flights.

The DGCA data mentioned that in December, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 94.9 percent at four metro airports – Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

AirAsia India and Vistara were at number two and three at these four airports in November with 89.9 percent and 88.4 percent on-time performance, respectively, the DGCA said.

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

All airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, leave without pay and firing of employees in order to tide over the crisis.

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