Bank of India (BoI) has become the first Indian bank to extend a bridge loan of $200 million to Air India to finance the purchase of two Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Confirming the development, a senior official of the airline said that the London branch of the bank had come forward to extend funds to acquire the Boeing 787 aircraft.
The funds raised from BoI will be used to acquire the 13th and 14th B-787 aircraft which the airline is to take delivery of.
Like in the past, the state-owned carrier will go in for a sale-and-lease-back mechanism, a common route adopted by several airlines to acquire expensive assets like aircraft. The Boeing website shows that a Boeing 787 retails for $ 211-288 million. The actual price of the aircraft varies from airline to airline depending on the number of aircraft ordered.
During fiscal 2014-15, Air India expects revenue from carrying passengers to touch ₹16,400 crore with international passengers accounting for 55 per cent of this revenue.
The state-owned carrier expects to carry close to 16 million passengers during the fiscal.