Airlines to boost asset values by adding slots to balance sheets
01.05.08
Airlines are set to bring the value of take off and landing slots on to their balance sheets, which will allow some major carriers to book billions more in assets, Accountancy Age (AA) reports. The move could see British Airways, the largest airline at Heathrow Airport with over 40% of it slots, book an asset of up to £2.5bn - significantly boosting its £11.3bn of assets and possibly allowing it to increase its debt, the magazine suggests.
Accountancy firm Deloitte say the airlines can put the slots on the books for the first time because there is now a market for buying and selling them. Graham Pickett, head of aviation for the firm, told AA: ‘There has not been a situation where you have an ‘active market’ until now.' Under accounting rules, that meant the assets could not be booked.
However, there has been increasing trade recently in the ‘pairs’ of slots meaning a landing and taking off time with those at Heathrow changing hands for £30m or more. Mr Pickett believes the airlines will book the assets ‘over the next six months’.
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