Milbank Advises Altavair AirFinance on Joint Venture with KKR

Milbank LLP advised aircraft lessor and financier Altavair AirFinance, a leader in commercial aviation finance, on its agreement to form a long-term partnership with leading global investment firm KKR & Co. Under the partnership, KKR has made a $1 billion capital commitment, primarily from its credit and infrastructure funds, which may be supplemented with additional commitments over time, to acquire commercial aircraft with Altavair over the next several years, and Altavair will be KKR’s partner for aircraft leasing investments going forward. KKR also acquired a 50% interest in Altavair as part of a long-term partnership to pursue the creation of a leading, global portfolio of leased commercial aircraft.

Altavair is an asset manager focusing on the acquisition of new and used commercial aircraft for leasing to domestic and international passenger airlines and cargo operators. Since its inception in 2003, Altavair has completed over $8 billion in commercial aircraft lease transactions with over 40 airline customers in 27 countries representing over 200 individual Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

The Milbank team was led by Global Corporate partner Dean Sattler and Transportation and Space partner Nick Swinburne, with partners Max Goodman (Tax) and Mike Shah (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits), and associates Daniel Tyrrell (Corporate), Gabrielle DiBernardi (Corporate), Raul Garcia (Corporate), Ben Godsell (Transportation and Space), James Beebe (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits) and Jules Mugema (Tax).