Air Canada today announced that it recently completed two longer-term refinancing transactions for a total amount of approximately $1.52 billion, replacing short-term facilities.

The first transaction consists of a committed Secured Facility totaling $787.7 million to finance Air Canada’s purchase of the first 18 Airbus A220 aircraft with a term of 12 years from the delivery of each aircraft.

The second transaction consists of a private placement of two tranches of Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificates. Air Canada used the proceeds of these EETCs to purchase equipment notes previously issued by the airline secured by three Boeing 787-9 aircraft, three Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, one Boeing 777-200LR and nine A321-200 aircraft.
Air Canada used the proceeds from this financing together with cash on hand to repay in full the U.S.$600 million 364-day term loan originally put in place in April 2020.

“These two refinancing transactions were completed in an extremely challenging environment and continue to demonstrate Air Canada’s ability to access financial markets on attractive terms and conditions to either improve liquidity or to refinance existing debt to push out maturities longer term and lower overall financial risk,” said Pierre Houle, Managing Director and Treasurer of the Company.