Maples Advises American Airlines on Record US$10 Billion Financing Plan
Maples and Calder, the Maples Group’s law firm, is pleased to have advised American Airlines and its indirect, wholly-own subsidiary Aadvantage Loyalty IP Ltd., the airlines loyalty programme, on the Cayman Islands legal aspects of its US$10 billion financing plan which closed on 24 March 2021.
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Notably, the sizeable bond and loan offering, backed by the airline’s frequent-flyer programme, is currently the largest debt transaction by an airline to date. It trumps Delta Airline’s recent US$9 billion bond and loan sale, a transaction that the firm also successfully advised on.
Partner Sherice Arman, noted “We are delighted to once again leverage the Maples Group’s experienced and deep bench of banking, finance, intellectual property, data protection and trusts specialists to support and advise American Airlines on this important transaction. Given the challenges that COVID-19 has presented to the aviation industry, our global finance team is busy advising clients on innovative financing arrangements to support the future of the industry.”
A multi-disciplinary team based in the Group’s Cayman Islands office advised American Airlines and was led by Partner and Cayman Islands Co-Head of Asset Finance, Sherice Arman. The team comprised Partners Abraham Thoppil, Tim Dawson, Finn O’Hegarty and Shari Howell, Of Counsel Nick Herrod and Associate Edward Rhind.
Latham & Watkins provided US counsel to American Airlines while Milbank advised Goldman Sachs as to US law matters.
In addition to advising Delta Airlines on their recent financing plan, the Maples Group also advised United Airlines on its US$6.8 billion financing plan that was collateralised by their loyalty programme.