Specialist securitisation in spotlight as Virgin Australia debuts with EEN

Virgin Australia has diversified away from more the traditional financing product favoured by airlines – the sale and leaseback – to become the first Australian-origin issuer to issue enhanced equipment notes (EENs). The issuer says it is only the fourth non-US domiciled airline to bring this type of structure and, while other Australasian carriers could follow, market participants suggest the possibility of the transaction being quickly repeated is slim.