Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) has cancelled the planned acquisition of four A350-900s from LATAM Airlines Group but vowed not to terminate a recently signed joint venture agreement despite the Latin American carrier holding filing for Chapter 11 restructuring.
LATAM said in a court filing that Delta had agreed to pay USD62 million for the cancellation of the sale and purchase agreement covering the four Airbus widebodies.
"Delta further agreed to not to exercise termination rights, if any, that it may have under the Framework Agreement or JV Agreement in the event that LATAM were to file for chapter 11, provided LATAM would seek and obtain Bankruptcy Court authorization to assume the Framework Agreement and JV Agreement within certain timeframes," LATAM disclosed.
The agreement, which covers LATAM's Chilean parent firm and all of its subsidiaries, was signed on May 25, a day before LATAM filed for Chapter 11.
According to the ch-aviation fleets ownership module, LATAM Airlines Group currently operates eight A350-900s through its LATAM Airlines Brasil (JJ, São Paulo Congonhas) subsidiary. Five of these units are owned by the group under a financial lease commitment, while the other three are under operating leases from AerCap.
In a separate filing, LATAM sought to return two of the five owned A350-900s to the lenders.
The group has outstanding orders for two A350-1000s. As a part of the same transaction, Delta - which already operates thirteen A350-900s - took over ten of LATAM's outstanding orders for the type. It now has a further twelve undelivered A350-900s on order from Airbus.
