Kuwait, Jazeera Airways announced yesterday that it will establish with the company NBK Capital, which is a subsidiary of National Bank of Kuwait, and the German bank DVB an aircraft leasing company capitalized at $375 million and based in Kuwait.

The new company is called ‘Sahaab Aircraft Leasing’, the founders of Jazeera Airways, the bank of DVB and the National Bank of Kuwait all hold strategic interest in the company.

A statement issued yesterday by Jazeera Airways said that Sahaab Leasing will provide both wide and narrow bodied aircraft on operational leases to airlines in the Middle East and emerging markets initially and eventually worldwide. It will obtain aircraft through directly purchase from aircraft manufacturing companies such as Boeing and Airbus.

“Our vision for Sahaab is to be the largest narrow-bodied aircraft leaser in the Middle East by year 2012 and become one of the top five companies in aircraft leasing by year 2020,” said Marwan Boodai, founder of Sahaab and Jazeera Airways Chairman and CEO. “We aim to achieve our vision through a phased growth approach while leveraging Sahaab Leasing founders' financial and industry strengths and outsourcing technical and administrative functions so that Sahaab Leasing's management can focus on aircraft and customer acquisitions.”

“The first stage will focus on acquiring new aircraft from airlines and we see Gulf carriers being our primary focus. We will launch Sahaab Leasing with Jazeera Airways as an initial customer in the Gulf, and we are targeting an initial aircraft portfolio of 40 to 50 aircraft with estimated value of $3bn by the second half of 2009,” said Boodai. “The second stage will focus on extending the reach to North Africa, India, Europe and the rest of the world.”

Source: Jazeera Airways