Qatar’s Lesha Bank has agreed to sell six Airbus A380s to Emirates (EK), with two aircraft already delivered and the remaining four due to transfer in stages through April 2028 as their leases end. The bank announced the sale in a statement dated November 10, 2026.

Lesha Bank sold the aircraft through an investment structure on behalf of its Lesha Aviation Fund. The bank said the deal secures long-term ownership of a core part of the Emirates widebody fleet for the airline, which it described as the world’s largest operator of the type, and supports the A380’s continued role in the carrier’s premium long-haul service and capacity plans as it expands its network from Dubai. The bank did not disclose the price.

Where the six A380s come from

Aviation Week reported on November 11, 2026, that the six A380s come from the portfolio of Amedeo Air Four Plus (AA4+), the aircraft lessor Lesha Bank bought in 2026. Citing its Fleet Discovery database, Aviation Week said all six aircraft are 10 to 12 years old, and that the AA4+ portfolio also includes two Boeing 777-300ERs and four Airbus A350-900s on long-term lease to Emirates or Thai Airways.

Lesha Bank announced on March 6, 2026, that its wholly owned subsidiary LAC 10 LLC, a Qatar Financial Centre company, would acquire the entire share capital of AA4+, a Guernsey-incorporated lessor then listed on the London Stock Exchange. The offer of 73 pence per share gave AA4+ an equity value of about GBP 190 million. The Royal Court of Guernsey sanctioned the scheme of arrangement on June 25, 2026, and AA4+ has since been delisted, according to the bank.

Jonathan Skirrow, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Lesha Aviation Services, called Emirates “a long-standing and valued partner” and said that completing the sale of the two aircraft “marks an important milestone.” He said the phased transfer of the remaining four reflects both the strength of the bank’s relationship with the airline and its focus on well-structured, value-accretive transactions for its investors.

Emirates keeps investing in the A380

According to Aviation Week, Emirates has been leasing the six aircraft from Lesha Bank, so the purchase brings them into its owned fleet. Emirates Airline President Tim Clark told Aviation Week’s Window Seat Podcast that he sees the A380 serving the airline for up to 24 or 25 years, and that the type could stay in the fleet until as late as 2041, Aviation Week reported. Its Fleet Discovery data showed Emirates with 85 A380s in service, 15 parked and 15 in storage as of November 11.

The airline has also been refitting the aircraft. On May 20, 2026, Emirates said it had completed its first two-class A380 retrofit, adding 56 Premium Economy seats on the upper deck of A6-EUX for a three-class layout of 76 Business, 56 Premium Economy and 437 Economy seats. It called the aircraft the first of 15 two-class A380s it will renovate, with all 15 planned for completion by the end of 2026.

The wider cabin retrofit program, run in-house by Emirates Engineering in Dubai, had covered 95 aircraft at that point, 42 of them A380s and 53 Boeing 777s, according to the airline. Emirates said the program was announced in 2021 with an initial scope of 120 aircraft and later expanded to 219.

A growing aviation book for Lesha Bank

The bank said the transaction reflects its growing aviation track record and its ability to structure and deliver aircraft transitions for clients and investors. The sale follows a larger purchase in the opposite direction: in September 2026, Lesha Bank agreed to buy a 33-aircraft portfolio from Avolon, leased to 25 airlines worldwide. The two companies said Lesha Aviation Services would manage that portfolio after completion, raising the bank’s total managed fleet to more than 75 aircraft.

Mohammed Ismail Al Emadi, Group Chief Executive Officer of Lesha Bank, said at the time that the Avolon deal “reflects the disciplined approach we have taken to building scale in aviation leasing,” and described the bank’s aviation portfolio as Shari’a-compliant.

Lesha Bank is listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange under the ticker QFBQ and is authorized by the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA). It did not identify the six aircraft or give dates for the individual transfers. The next milestones are the four remaining handovers to Emirates, which the bank expects to complete in stages through April 2028 as the current leases end.

Aviation Capital Group (ACG) has delivered an Airbus A321neo to Wizz Air (W6), completing a four-aircraft sale-and-leaseback transaction and bringing the lessor’s A321neo deliveries to the airline to 16 since March 2025.

In a press release dated November 10, 2026, the Newport Beach, California-based lessor said the aircraft is the final delivery under the four-aircraft deal it opened in August. ACG Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Carter A. White said the 16 deliveries came over 20 months and across three mandates.

Sixteen aircraft in 20 months

The relationship began on March 24, 2025, when ACG announced the delivery of one A321neo powered by Pratt & Whitney GTF engines to Wizz Air. ACG said at the time that it was the first aircraft scheduled for delivery under a multiple-aircraft sale-leaseback transaction. “ACG is delighted to deliver this A321neo aircraft to Wizz Air,” Claudio Cheinquer, Vice President, Marketing at ACG, said then.

On October 21, 2025, ACG announced three more GTF-powered A321neos for Wizz Air. Those were the tenth, eleventh and twelfth aircraft under the sale-leaseback arrangement, delivered from Hamburg, Germany, and Tianjin, China, over one week. ACG said they completed its mandate with the airline at that point.

A new mandate followed. On August 18, 2026, ACG said it had delivered the first of four new A321neos at the Airbus Delivery Centre in Toulouse, again with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines. The lessor said then that the completed mandate would leave it with sixteen A321neo aircraft on lease to Wizz Air, and White said, “The remaining three aircraft are expected to follow in quick succession.” The November 10 delivery closes that transaction.

What the two companies said

“We are incredibly proud of this achievement,” White said in the November 10 release. He said delivering 16 A321neo aircraft to Wizz Air in 20 months, across three mandates, “demonstrates ACG’s ability to execute at scale.” He thanked the delivery teams in Toulouse, Hamburg and Tianjin.

Owain Jones, Chief Corporate Officer of Wizz Air, said investing in modern, fuel-efficient aircraft is central to the airline’s strategy of affordable air travel. “The A321neo combines lower unit costs with lower fuel consumption per passenger,” Jones said. He described ACG as a trusted fleet development partner.

The lessor and the operator behind the deal

ACG specializes in commercial aircraft leasing and provides asset management and financing services to third parties. As of September 30, 2026, the company had approximately 500 owned, managed and committed aircraft, leased to roughly 85 airlines in about 50 countries, according to the release. ACG was founded in 1989 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo Century Corporation.

Wizz Air operates 276 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and carried 68.6 million passengers in 2025, according to the company description in the release. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker WIZZ. The AirPro Atlas lists Wizz Air, founded in 2003, with Hungary as its country.

The release does not disclose financial terms or lease length for the transaction.

The Cathay Group has firmly ordered 14 more Airbus aircraft, 11 A330-900 widebodies and three A321neo narrowbodies, by exercising purchase rights with the manufacturer. The order lifts the group’s firm commitment for the A330-900 to 41 aircraft, according to Airbus.

In a press release dated November 11, 2026, Cathay said the A330-900s will support the growth of the regional network of Cathay Pacific (CX) and add passenger and cargo capacity, while the A321neos will strengthen the growth potential of the group’s low-cost airline HK Express (UO) on routes to the Chinese Mainland and other short-haul destinations. Cathay said the orders bring its total aircraft deliveries from 2026 to 120, closer to its plan for 150 new aircraft over the next 10 years if market conditions are favourable. Airbus announced the same order from Toulouse on November 11, 2026.

How the order builds on the 2023 and 2024 deals

The 11 A330-900s come on top of the 30 the group ordered in 2024, and the three A321neos add to the 32 A321neo and A320neo aircraft it ordered in 2023, according to both the Cathay and the Airbus releases. Neither release gives a value or a delivery schedule for the 14 new aircraft.

The 2024 deal shows how Cathay has framed the A330-900. In its stock exchange announcement of August 7, 2024, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited said Cathay Pacific Aircraft Services Limited had agreed with Airbus S.A.S. to buy 30 A330-900s and had secured the right to acquire 30 additional aircraft of the type. That announcement put the aircraft basic price, covering airframe, optional features and engines, at approximately US$11 billion (about HK$85.8 billion), and said Airbus had granted significant price concessions, so the actual consideration was lower. Delivery of those 30 aircraft was expected by the end of 2031.

The same filing said the A330-900s would progressively replace Cathay’s existing fleet of mid-size widebody aircraft and enable future growth. They would mainly serve regional destinations in Asia, with flexibility for longer-haul routes at a later stage, the company said at the time.

Where the new aircraft fit in the fleet

Cathay is already an operator of the A330ceo, as Airbus noted in its release. The AirPro Atlas has seen 42 Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300s flying since October 13, 2026. In its interim results release of August 5, 2026, the group said its regional A330 aircraft will receive an all-new Aria Studio Business class and a new Economy cabin by the end of 2026.

HK Express already flies the A321neo. The AirPro Atlas has seen 16 HK Express A321neos in the air since October 13, 2026, alongside 10 A321s, six A320neos and two A320s.

The new aircraft join a broader delivery pipeline. Cathay said its deliveries from 2026 include A321neo and A320neo narrowbodies, A330-900 regional widebodies, Boeing 777-9 long-haul widebodies, and A350F and A330 freighters, as part of its fleet renewal and expansion plan. On the cargo side, the interim results release said Cathay Cargo had increased its Airbus A350F freighter order to eight aircraft and signed a lease for an A330P2F converted freighter for Air Hong Kong.

What Cathay and Airbus said

Cathay Group Chief Executive Officer Ronald Lam linked the order to the group’s home hub, Hong Kong, and to its sustainability goals. In the Cathay release, he said the group was “pleased to further strengthen our fleet with new orders for these state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient aircraft.” Lam said the orders bring the group’s total committed investment to over HK$150 billion for 2026 to 2035, and said, “These investments will consolidate and elevate Hong Kong’s status as a leading international aviation hub.”

In the Airbus release, Alex McGowan, Cathay’s Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer, said the A330 and A320 aircraft families have served the group well, and that the order supports regional growth across Asia-Pacific as well as longer flights. Benoit de Saint-Exupery, Airbus Executive Vice President Sales of the Commercial Aircraft business, described Cathay as “an experienced operator of the A330ceo and the A320 Family” and called the order a strong endorsement of the aircraft’s value. He said the mix gives the airline flexibility on capacity, lower fuel burn and a streamlined Airbus fleet.

The group behind the order, and the aircraft

The order follows what Chair Guy Bradley called “a strong financial performance in the first half of 2026.” Cathay reported an attributable profit of HK$6.2 billion for the first half of 2026, compared with HK$3.7 billion in the first half of 2025, according to its interim results release. The group said the second quarter was harder than the first because of the situation in the Middle East and a sharp rise in jet fuel prices, with jet fuel costs almost doubling from the first quarter to the second. In the same release, Bradley said the group had “committed around HK$150 billion in investments into our fleet, cabin and lounge products” and that it targets 150 new aircraft and a network of 150 destinations over the next 10 years, if market conditions are favourable.

Airbus says the A330neo, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines, can fly up to 8,100 nautical miles (15,000 kilometers) non-stop and cuts fuel burn, CO2 emissions and operating cost by 25% compared with previous-generation competitor aircraft. The manufacturer describes the A320 Family as the world’s most popular single-aisle family, with nearly 20,600 orders, and says it delivers at least 20% fuel savings and CO2 reduction compared with previous-generation single-aisle aircraft. The A321neo is the family’s largest member.