Major local banks and foreign lending institutions are in a race to fund Oman Air's fleet expansion, reported the Oman Observer on Monday.
Among the local banks, Bank Muscat, National Bank of Oman (NBO) and Oman Arab Bank (OAB) have already submitted their separate offers for a term loan facility of around $70 million.
Banking sources were quoted by the daily as saying that apart from the local banks, a few specialized foreign aircraft financing institutions had also submitted their offers.
The airline is currently evaluating the offers and a final decision will be taken within a couple of weeks.
Last February, the airline signed an outright purchase agreement with Boeing for acquiring two aircraft at a total cost of $103 million. It was only a couple of months ago that Oman Air signed another RO52 million aircraft leasing agreement with the US-based International Leasing Finance Corp. (ILFC) for acquiring two B-737-700 and one B-737-800 aircraft on lease over a five-year period.
This was part of the airline's plan to modernize the national airline and thereby provide enhanced customer comfort, said the paper – Albawaba.com
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