Chapter 7 of 10
The bank and loans
When borrowing makes sense, and how missed payments end
A loan is not free money — it trades future profit for an aircraft today. Management takes it out, the whole airline pays it back, every week, whether anyone flew that week or not.
Terms
Payments are annuity-style: the figure never changes, it is simply weighted towards interest at the start and towards principal at the end. An airline may hold only one active loan — nothing new is issued until the current one is closed.
How much you get
The limit adds up from two parts: 20% of the value of the aircraft the airline owns outright, plus twelve average weekly operating profits (averaged over the last four weeks). It never goes above ₽2bn.
Only operating activity counts as profit. Aircraft purchases and sales, lease deposits, starting capital and the loan movements themselves are left out — you cannot inflate the limit by selling an airframe.
If you stop paying
- A 0.1% penalty accrues daily on the outstanding balance.
- Miss four payments in a row and the bank sells one of the airline's aircraft at 75% of market value, clearing the debt from the proceeds. Its crew is released.
- So lease instalments and loan payments are the ones to cover first: salaries can be trimmed, but these are debited on their own schedule.
Paying it off early
You can close a loan at any point: the principal plus half of the remaining interest. If the cash is there, that usually beats riding out the full term.