The 15 ATR 72-600s fleet financing for the Colombian national flag carrier Avianca has been awarded by Airfinance Journal as “Regional Jet/Turboprop Deal of the Year 2013”. The award has been granted to the carrier at the 15th Annual Deals of the Year Awards Dinner ceremony, held in New York. It recognizes the innovative financing set up for this deal, the very first one obtained with “100% Guarantee” of the French and Italian Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), Coface and Sace respectively, after the extension by the French State of the 100% guarantee enhanced support to regional aircraft in 2013 to promote a more balanced and competitive playing field in the financing area. The Avianca's ATR 72-600s financing has also been awarded as a recognition for being very first one to include a “Flip to Bond option”, an innovative structure enabling to refinance the operation on the capital markets through the conversion of the ECA-guaranteed loans into ECA-wrapped bonds. The financing of this deal has been possible with the efforts of ATR, Avianca, HSBC, Appel Bank of Savings and BNP Paribas.

In recent years, other financing deals of ATR have also been granted by Airfinance Journal on the Year Awards ceremony. In 2011, the deal for the financing of a fleet of 6 ATR 72-600s of the Indian carrier Jet Airways already obtained the “Regional Jet/Turboprop Deal of the Year 2010”, while in 2009, the deal for the financing of 5 ATR 72-500s and 2 ATR 42-500s of the Tanzanian carrier Precision Air Services was granted with the “African Deal of the Year 2008”. 

Commenting on this prestigious award, Eric Baravian, ATR's Senior Vice-President Finance and Chief Financial Officer of ATR, stated: “We are honored that Airfinance recognizes a financial deal which is a great achievement. The award highlights the ability of all the actors that made this financing real to jointly set up particularly innovative solutions in order to introduce the newest ATR 72-600 series aircraft into Colombia.”

 About ATR:

ATR is the leader in the regional aviation market. ATR turboprop aircraft are recognized as the most eco-friendly regional airplanes and are the world benchmark in terms of efficiency, reliability and economics on short-haul routes. ATR is ISO 14001 certified. Today more than 180 operators fly ATRs in over 90 countries worldwide. ATR is an equal partnership between two major European aeronautics players, the Airbus Group and Alenia Aermacchi (a Finmeccanica Group company).