BINTER SIGNS FINANCE AGREEMENT FOR FIVE NEW EMBRAER E195-E2 JETS

Binter has concluded a financing agreement with a consortium of leading Spanish banks Caixabank, Santander and BBVA - with Deloitte and KPMG acting as advisors - to develop its fleet expansion programme.

Binter president Rodolfo Núñez and vice-president Alfredo Morales signed the agreement with the three banks in Gran Canaria. Under the financing operation, the airline will invest more than 389 million USD in the purchase of five E195-E2 aircraft, to be delivered in 2023 and 2024.

According to Rodolfo Núñez, «we remain committed to adding to our fleet with efficient planes offering the characteristics we need to continue to give our customers the best possible service».

«These planes allow us to improve connections between the Canary Islands and domestic and international destinations, with the quality and comfort that have become synonymous with Binter. This is a further demonstration of our commitment to providing the people of the Canaries with the travel they deserve» said Núñez. The airline’s vice-president Alfredo Morales emphasised that «Binter’s healthy balance sheet and the trust which banks have in us have enabled us to put together this major financing operation».

Binter has renovated its fleet constantly since the airline was taken over by Canarian entrepreneurs in 2002. Since then, it has purchased 42 turboprops from ATR in a series of operations totalling over 900 million USD and ten Embraer jets which have seen investment increase by a further 731 million USD.

Thanks to this sizeable investment, Binter has consolidated its position as an airline with one of the youngest and most modern fleets of aircraft in Europe. According to the Swiss airline intelligence agency, Ch-Aviation, with an average age of 4.8 years the Canarian company’s fleet is among Europe’s youngest.

E195-E2

The E195-E2 is the biggest and most modern of Embraer’s twin-engined medium-range E-Jet E2 family of commercial jets. The new planes will have the same 132-seat single-cabin configuration, with a comfortable seat pitch of 79 centimetres.

The interior of the E2 is a benchmark for the aviation industry on account of its 2 + 2 seating configuration, with no middle seat, and overhead compartments which can be adapted to carry one piece of hand lug- gage per passenger, double the capacity of conventional jets flying regional routes.

The single-aisle E2 E-Jets are low in noise, as well as being clean and efficient. They offer important improvements not just in terms of fuel consumption but also in maintenance costs.

Embraer is a Brazil-based international company that manufacturers commercial and executive aircraft and works in the defence and security sectors also. It is the world’s leading maker of sub-150-seat commercial aircraft. Founded in 1969, it has delivered over 8,000 planes, which means that a plane made by Embraer takes off every ten seconds from somewhere in the world, carrying a total of 145 million passengers a year.