SAAB AIRCRAFT LEASING Market Report Issue 13 May 2006 Pacific Coastal introduces Saab 340 service to the Canadian West Coast Sol Lineas Aereas to fly Saab 340s in Argentina Poland’s Sky Express teams with Direct Fly MESSAGE FROM Michael Magnusson Contents This issue has been timed to be distributed Saab Aircraft Leasing posts strong year in 2005 . 3 at the RAA Annual Convention in Dallas dur- ing May. It is the most important regional Saab 340s to be reintroduced to the Argentine market.. 4 aviation gathering of the year with all region- Lufthansa flies Saab Safir again. 4 al airlines and suppliers well represented. For us at Saab, it involves three hectic days Next series of Saab ads will feature catching up with all our customers, suppliers Loganair, OLT and Golden Air. 5 and possible new clients. I always say that the RAA convention is big enough to attract Saab 340 Global Operators Conference everyone but small enough so you can actu- to be held in October. 5 ally find everyone, something which can be a challenge at the gigantic Farnborough and Paris Air Show events. I encourage our customers outside the Family run Pacific Coastal Airlines US to attend as well — I think you would find it worthwhile. expands fleet with three Saab 340As. 6-7 OLT broadens international presence with The industry as always continues to have its ups and downs.The large airlines Malev cooperation . 8 are doing better, even in the US, but they still have a long way to go.The con- tinuing rise in fuel prices is obviously making the recovery longer and harder Carpatair takes Saab 2000 fleet to 12 . 8 for the jet market. In our small corner of the market, we enjoy a robust busi- ness, with more deals being done and our inventory of aircraft shrinking PPG Aerospace manufactures cockpit windows steadily. During our RAA press conference I expect to be able to announce a for Saab fleet. 9 number of these deals. Interestingly, we continue to attract more business out- side the traditional airline market — be it cargo, corporate or government Upcoming events with Saab. 9 contracts. Reasonably priced turboprops attract many! Sky Express teams with Direct Fly The Saab 2000 market is proving to be especially strong. At the moment, for 340 passenger services. 10 we have no Saab 2000 aircraft on the ground.We will get back the major- ERA airlines see traffic bolstered . 11 ity of the Regional fleet during 2006, and are encouraged by the interest we are seeing already for these aircraft. Many of our Saab 2000 customers are Mongolia's Eznis Airways to fly Saab 340B . 11 doing well, such as Carpatair, FlyLAL, Eastern and OLT, just to name a few.With four Saab 2000s flying in the US market for NASCAR racing teams, the versa- Bimini Island Air flies Saab 340A tility of the aircraft is attracting numerous operators.The Saab 2000 can do for Las Vegas real estate company . 11 90% of what a regional jet can do, but at a lower cost and offering more flex- ibility with its shorter runway capability. Saab operators . 12 The other aircraft doing very well is the Saab 340B. Availability is very lim- ited and at SAL, we only have one currently in inventory. When Chicago Express with its 17 Saab 340Bs went bankrupt in 2005 because of its par- ent company problems, we thought it would take some time to place such a large fleet, but that was not the case. Colgan took the entire fleet very quickly, driven by its new contract with Continental Airlines. On top of that, Swiss sold nine remaining Saab 340Bs during 2005 in Europe, and AMR sold an equal number in the US. This year already, REX has bought three from CIT, Colgan is taking three from Bank of America, and a start-up car- Market Report is published by Saab Aircraft Leasing. rier in Mongolia has bought two Saab 340Bs from AMR. Editor: Kelly Murphy For those of you planning to attend the Farnborough Air Show in July, we will be Emerald Media there as usual at the main Saab chalet, so please come and visit us. As it is [email protected] such a big event, we do not want to miss anyone. Europe: Alison Chambers Emerald Media [email protected] Design and Layout: Aeris Graphic Design [email protected] Cover photo by: Garry Cotter Michael Magnusson President and CEO, Saab Aircraft Leasing Printed in USA May 2006 ©2006 Saab Aircraft Market Report Saab Aircraft Leasing posts strong year in 2005 The year 2005 will be recorded in avi- Included in these transactions SAL has been placing annually. ation history as the year of the turbo- were two dedicated Cargo Saab “The transactions for 2005 show prop comeback. New turboprop sales 340As to IBC and RAF Avia, further a geographically wide spread surpassed regional jet sales for the securing the Cargo market share for placement among diverse customers first time in 10 years and, in turn, the Saab 340. These latest orders will clearly demonstrating the continuing Saab Aircraft Leasing completed a grow the total of all Cargo Saab 340s worldwide appeal of the Saab air- very successful year. to 12, adding to the five existing craft,“ said Michael Magnusson, SAL placed 32 aircraft during last Quick Change aircraft. President and CEO of Saab Aircraft year, including 10 Saab 2000s and 22 As SAL enters 2006, the company Leasing. “We are also very pleased Saab 340s (See table below for details). is already off to a great start with that third parties placed another 87 These turboprops were placed with deliveries for four Saab 340A aircraft Saabs to meet the demands of the existing customers such as Carpatair, in progress. Currently, SAL has the market.” Colgan, Eastern, IBC, Lithuanian, lowest inventory of available aircraft The worldwide fleet of Saab 340s Loganair, OLT, Penair and REX. In in many years, totaling only seven and Saab 2000s is approximately addition, new customers were Saab 340As, one S340B and no Saab 500 units operated by nearly 50 sourced during 2005 including 2000s. Some 20 aircraft are scheduled customers in 20 countries. By Bimini, FlyLPI, Mash Executive, for lease returns during 2006, which December 2005, the Saab 340 fleet Pacific Coastal and RAF Avia. is nearly the same number of aircraft had accumulated 11.8m flight hours and 13.2m cycles. The highest time Saab Aircraft Leasing reports the following aircraft is at 44,500 hours, and the highest time cycles is at 53,700, with new business during 2005: a long useful life of 60,000 hours and 90,000 cycles under current MRB. The FlyLPI (Spain) Two Saab 340A Sale Saab 2000 fleet had accumulated IBC (USA) One Saab 340A Cargo Sale 970,000 hours and 956,000 cycles by RAF Avia (Latvia) One Saab 340A Cargo Sale December. The highest time Saab Bimini (USA) One Saab 340A Sale Mash Executive(Lebanon) One Saab 340A Sale 2000 aircraft is 23,200 hours and Transwest (Canada) One Saab 340A Sale 22,400 cycles reflecting a much REX (Australia) Two Saab 340A Sale younger fleet. Pacific Coastal (Canada) Two Saab 340A Sale Bridges (UK) One Saab 340A Cargo Sale Tracking third party activities Loganair (UK) Two Saab 340A Lease Saab aircraft were in demand during Colgan (US) Three Saab 340A Lease 2005, therefore a large number of Penair (USA) One Saab 340A Lease aircraft have been placed. These Shuttle America (US) One Saab 340A Sale consist of 40 Saab 340As, 35 Saab Japanese Coast Guard Two Saab 340Bplus Sale (Conversion by Saab Aircraft) 340Bs and 12 Saab 2000s. This total Amber (Lithuania) One Saab 340B Lease of 87 Saab transactions, added to Eastern (UK) Two Saab 2000 Lease the 32 SAL aircraft, makes for an Carpatair (Romania) Two Saab 2000 Lease unprecedented 119 Saab aircraft OLT (Germany) One Saab 2000 Lease placements. SAL placed 37% of the Lithuanian Airlines Four Saab 2000 Lease Saab 340As, a few 340Bs (due to lack Un-announced One Saab 2000 Sale of aircraft availability), and 45% of To t a l 32 the Saab 2000s. (10 Saab 2000s and 22 Saab 340s) Bold indicates new customers to the Saab family. Market Report May 2006 3 Market Report Saab 340s to be reintroduced to the Argentine market Argentina is seeing a re-emergence of the Saab 340 with Sol Lineas Aereas' (SOL) recent purchase of two Saab 340As. This new startup carrier Director General Gustavo Cebreiro, The purchased aircraft will ini- was created to fill the void left by the an Argentinean aviation industry tially fly twice daily from Rosario to bankruptcy of Southern Wings. veteran, tells Saab Market Report Cordoba, three daily flights to Planning to launch services in July that Sol Lineas’ parent company, Buenos Aires’Aeroparque downtown from its Rosario, Argentina base, the Transatlantica, has many interests in airport, and two daily flights be- two former Shuttle America Saab the travel sector and therefore has tween Sante Fe and Aeroparque, 340s, will be delivered in June. long-term plans to include the airline. with a stopover in Rafaela. Lufthansa flies Saab Safir again Bremen-based Lufthansa Flight In 1955, Lufthansa restarted its Training has lovingly restored a 1954 airline operations and owing to this vintage Saab Safir training aircraft expansion needed to train future for exhibition flights. The Safir was pilots. This growth prompted the developed by Saab in the 1940s as a purchase of two Safirs in 1954 and a basic trainer for both military and third joined in 1958.