Qatar Airways has signed an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank in Doha, Qatar for a $736 million Interest Rate Swap transaction, which provides an interest rate hedging facility to Qatar Airways to fix their long-term borrowing costs for a total of 12 aircraft.
The deal follows the recent long term financing of two Airbus A320 aircraft where Standard Chartered Bank also participated as one of the lenders. The tenor of the facility extends up to 12 years and is aimed at providing Qatar Airways with protection against possible interest rate rises.
Qatar Airways serves 41 destinations throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. As a part of its expansion plan, the airline will extend its route network to 50 destinations by the end of 2003. Qatar Airways recently signed an agreement with Airbus for an order of 34 aircraft in a $5.1 billion deal that will help the airline in its goal to increase its fleet to 56 by 2008. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
