Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (ATSG), the provider of medium wide-body aircraft leasing, air transportation and related services, recently announced an agreement to lease twelve additional Boeing 767-300 converted freighter aircraft to Amazon.com Services LLC. One of the twelve aircraft was delivered on May 29, 2020 and the remaining eleven will be delivered in 2021. All twelve will be leased to Amazon for ten years, with options for Amazon to extend the leases for three additional years.
Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM), ATSG’s aircraft leasing subsidiary, currently leases twenty-seven 767 aircraft to Amazon, including six leased during 2019. In December 2018, Amazon committed to lease those six plus an additional four 767s from CAM by the end of 2020. The agreement announced today increases the projected number of 767s CAM will have leased to Amazon to 31 by the end of 2020 and to 42 by the end of 2021.
Rich Corrado, President and CEO of ATSG said, “This new commitment is further evidence of Amazon’s confidence in our ability to support its expanding U.S. air network. We look forward to supporting Amazon with additional aircraft capacity and to generating additional revenues and cash flows for our shareholders from our unique asset and service offerings, for many years to come.”
Widebody Boeing 767 freighters have become the preeminent midsize component of regional air-cargo networks over the last ten years, and ATSG is the world’s largest lessor of that aircraft type. ATSG expects to end 2020 with seventy-eight owned 767 freighter aircraft in operation, seventy-one of which will be leased to eleven external customers.
Pursuant to the terms of the parties’ December 2018 deal, Amazon will be granted approximately seven million warrants to purchase ATSG common shares in exchange for its commitment to these twelve additional leases. The cash exercise price for these warrants will be $20.40 per share, based upon the volume-weighted average price of ATSG’s stock for the 30 trading days concluded prior to the contractual commitment for the leases.
