DUBLIN, Nov. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Fly Leasing Limited (FLY) (“FLY”), a global leader in aircraft leasing, today announced it has repriced its $385 million Term Loan. The interest rate on the amended loan is LIBOR plus 1.75%, a 0.25% margin reduction. Additionally, the maturity has been extended by more than two years from February 2023 to August 2025. In conjunction with the extension, FLY paid a one-time fee of 0.25% OID to the lenders.
“FLY’s strong upward trajectory, combined with its significant deleveraging and recent Standard & Poor’s rating upgrade, created the momentum for the successful repricing of FLY’s largest debt facility. We anticipate annual cash interest savings of nearly $1 million,” said Colm Barrington, CEO of FLY. “We remain committed to reducing our borrowing costs while opportunistically extending debt maturities. FLY will continue to explore other opportunities to optimize its balance sheet and create value.”
ATLANTA, Nov. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — ExpressJet Airlines, a United Express carrier, began assigning pilots to its Embraer E175 aircraft base of operations at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, in advance of a January 1, 2020 open.
(PRNewsfoto/ExpressJet Airlines)
“Chicago’s size and central location makes it a highly desirable location for commuter pilots and locals alike,” said Scott Hall, Vice President of Flight Operations. “Opening the E175 crew base in Chicago is a natural outcome of ExpressJet’s growth trajectory.”
The E175 base will be in addition to ExpressJet’s existing ERJ145 pilot, flight attendant, and maintenance bases in Chicago. This is ExpressJet’s second E175 base, after the first base opened at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
About ExpressJet Airlines ExpressJet Airlines operates as United Express, on behalf of United Airlines (UAL), to serve more than 100 airports across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with over 3,300 weekly flights from bases in Chicago, Cleveland, Houstonand Newark. ExpressJet’s fleet includes more than 100 aircraft, including the Embraer ERJ145 and 25 new Embraer E175 aircraft. ExpressJet pilots enjoy top-tier pay and quality of life and can choose the Aviate career path to United Airlines. ExpressJet is a subsidiary of ManaAir, LLC. ManaAir is majority-owned by KAir Enterprises and minority-owned by United Airlines. For further information, contact 404-856-1199, corpcomm@expressjet.com.
PARIS, Sept 5 (Reuters) – French judges have dropped charges against Air France and Airbus over a mid-Atlantic plane crash in 2009 that killed all 228 people on board, blaming the pilots for losing control of the plane.
In their conclusions, seen by Reuters, the judges said the pilots of the Airbus A330 had failed to process all the warnings and instrument readings provided by the aircraft.
The plane plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris after entering an aerodynamic stall and falling from an altitude of 38,000 feet during a storm, its engines running but its wings losing lift.
“The direct cause of the accident is the crew’s loss of control of the aircraft’s trajectory,” the judges determined.
Other crews, faced with similar situations, had successfully maintained control of their aircraft, their ruling said.
The judges overruled the prosecutors investigating the case, who had recommended that Air France stand trial over the crash in July.
In their 2012 report, French civil accident investigators found the startled crew of AF447 mishandled the loss of airspeed readings from pitot sensors blocked with ice and pushed the jet into a stall by holding the nose too high. The report also cited poor training and the lack of a clear cockpit display for speed problems.
The three-year civil investigation was not designed to cast blame, which was the purpose of the separate judicial probe culminating in the decision on Thursday.
A lawyer representing the families of victims said an appeal against the judges’ decision would be lodged immediately.
“The judges have just written in black and white that the icing of the pitot sensors had nothing to do with the accident. It’s nonsense,” Sebastien Busy told Reuters. “If the pitot sensors hadn’t iced up, there wouldn’t have been an accident.”
The accident was the deadliest in the history of Air France and in the history of the A330.
A decade later, the aviation industry is still implementing lessons learned from the crash. Changes have focused on training, cockpit procedures and the tracking of aircraft in remote zones.
It took salvage teams nearly two years to locate the A330’s flight recorders on the ocean floor.
(Reporting by Sophie Louet and Emmanuel Jarry Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
