AirAsia has won Airline Treasury Team of the Year at the Airfinance Journal (AFJ) Global Awards 2018.

The prestigious accolade recognises the airline treasury team which has outperformed in fleet financing strategy.

It was awarded to AirAsia’s aircraft finance team for closing two major aircraft portfolio projects to FLY Leasing Limited and Castlelake LP last year through the use of “efficient financing structures that were able to resolve several challenges, which were not prevalent in typical aircraft financing transactions”.

AirAsia also took home the Editor’s Deal of the Year, selected by AFJ Editor Jack Dutton, for the US$1.18 billion sale of its 84-aircraft leasing operations to BBAM Limited Partnership managed entities, FLY Leasing Limited and Incline B Aviation Limited Partnership.

AirAsia Group CFO Pattra Boosarawongse and AirAsia Head of Aircraft Finance Farhan Zainul accepted the awards on behalf of AirAsia at a gala ceremony dinner held in the Metropolitan Club here last Thursday.

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said, “The sale of our aircraft leasing operations was the culmination of a long-running strategy to dispose of our physical non-core assets for cash. By doing so, we were able to monetise our aircraft at high prices and avoid residual risk, while allowing us to return cash to shareholders and invest in our digital ventures, which will power AirAsia’s growth over the next decade and more.

“All this wouldn’t have been possible without my incredible aircraft finance team, and I can think of no one better that deserves to win Airline Treasury Team of the Year.”

The AFJ Global Awards are the world’s leading and most prestigious aviation finance awards, celebrating the best-in-class airline, lessor and OEM financing deals closed in the past calendar year while recognising the organisations and teams that played a central role in those deals.

Up to 320 submissions in 31 categories covering more than 128 unique deals were considered this year by an international panel of judges, including nine senior aviation finance executives from the airline, finance, legal and manufacturing sectors.