Former Best Friends on Air India A350-900 aircraft acquisition through GIFT City

Air India has acquired A350-900 aircraft through a finance lease transaction with HSBC.

This transaction takes centerstage as Air India’s maiden ‘widebody’ aircraft acquisition through an Indian IFSC as also the country’s inaugural aircraft acquisition by a commercial airline through the GIFT City.

AZB & Partners acted for Air India in this deal.

The transaction team consisted of Anand Shah (Senior Partner), Hufriz Wadia (Partner), Rishiraj Baruah (Senior Associate), Kshitez Kaushik (Senior Associate) and Saptarshi Bhuyan (Associate), with periodic inputs from Haseena Tapia Shahpurwalla (Counsel).

RNC Legal India, Bird & Bird and Clifford Chance also worked with AZB on this deal.

Clifford Chance advised HSBC and according to the law firm this transaction represents the first time Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in India has been used in aviation financing.

Clifford Chance's cross-border team was led by partner Fergus Evans (Singapore) and counsel Nattawat Vilasdechanon (Singapore). They were supported by partner Emily Wicker (New York), associates Vanessa Heng (Singapore), Regine Law (Singapore) and Olga Miller (New York), trainee associates Caiying Seah (Singapore) and Haeyoung Kim (Singapore), and paralegal legal assistant Aicha Marchoud (Paris).

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