(Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co <LUV.N> will sell and lease back 20 planes for gross proceeds of about $815 million, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
The move will help Southwest save cash at a time when U.S. airlines collectively burn more than $10 billion a month. Passenger traffic in the country has fallen by 95% since March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Southwest’s deal involves 10 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and 10 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The airline did not specify who it was selling the planes to and the duration of the leaseback agreement.
Last month, rival United Airlines <UAL.O> agreed to sell and lease back 22 planes to aircraft investor Bank of China Aviation. United, however, did not specify the size of the deal.
Southwest said https://bit.ly/3be71WI it would use the money raised for general corporate purposes.
(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
