Altavair, a commercial aviation finance company, signed an agreement to lease 10 Airbus A330-300 aircraft to Amazon Air. The aircraft will be delivered following freighter conversion by Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH, a joint venture between ST Engineering Aerospace and Airbus. Altavair will act as lease servicer while the aircraft are owned by funds and accounts managed by KKR. The first of the A330 freighters will be placed in service with Amazon Air in late 2023.

“We are thrilled to have presented this opportunity to Amazon Air and look forward to growing this relationship further,” Steve Rimmer, CEO of Altavair, said. “Our ability to execute this complex transaction in a challenging environment for the aviation industry is a testament to our decades of experience leasing cargo aircraft, our team’s creativity and KKR’s ongoing support of our strategy. We are very appreciative that Amazon Air placed its confidence with the Altavair team to make this transaction a reality.”

“Together with Altavair, we are happy to support Amazon with this transaction, which marks an important milestone in our continued efforts to build relationships with leading carriers around the world,” Patrick Clancy, director at KKR and Andrew Peisch, director at KKR, said.

“We’re pleased to work with Altavair,” Sarah Rhoads, VP of Amazon Global Air, said. “The team’s expertise and tenure in the industry make them an excellent partner, which enables us to focus on operational excellence to deliver on customer promises.”

KKR Capital Markets and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) acted as joint mandated lead arrangers, and MUFG acted as structuring agent and hedge provider in this transaction.