A London High Court has ruled that Olympus Airways (Athens) owes UK aircraft lessor and financier FTAI Aviation more than USD4.5 million in outstanding rent and damages for an A319-100 leased in 2016.

The June 6 decision at the London Circuit Commercial Court division of the High Court of England and Wales relates to a trial that took place on October 5-7, 2021, between the defendant, Olympus Airways, and the claimant, FTAI AirOpCo UK Ltd, part of a group of companies controlled by Fortress Investment Group.

At issue were outstanding base rent and maintenance payments on the A319 SX-BHN (msn 1612) and two CFM56-5B6/P engines (msn 5752800) and (msn 779311).

The original 48-month lease agreement dated January 22, 2016, had been between Olympus Airways and lessor ALS Leasing UK Ltd, which had sold the aircraft on July 18, 2018, to WWTAI AirOpCo DAC II (WWTAI), a sister company in the Fortress Group. The purchase had gone through on October 5 of that year when the original lease agreement was novated to FTAIO AirOpCo.

The new lessor demanded outstanding base rent and maintenance payments from the Greek airline by October 31, 2018. After the airline failed to comply, the lessor served a default notice and termination of lease notice on the airline on November 1 and again on November 2, 2018.

According to the court docket, Olympus Airways did not deny its obligation to pay some rent but disputed the effective time of the novation agreement and denied liability to pay rent for the time preceding that.

Later in 2019, the Airbus aircraft was detained at Athens as a result of debts owed by Olympus Airways to third parties, including parking charges payable to the airport and VAT payable to the Greek customs authorities. The lessor eventually had to pay the debts to have the detention lifted.

In July 2020, the Greek authorities granted the lessor permission to disassemble the aircraft in situ. WWTAI sold the airframe in July 2020 for USD750,000. The engines were removed in August 2020 and are currently awaiting repair.

In its ruling, the court found that FTAI AirOpCo is entitled to the following:

  • Base rent payable on October 10, 2018, of USD125,000;
  • Maintenance rent payable on October 15, 2018, of USD30,545;
  • Base rent from November 2018 to March 2020 of USD2,125,000;
  • Maintenance rent for November 2018 to March 2020 of USD514,884; and
  • A damages award of USD1,802,000.

The airline was not immediately available for comment.