SAS sees Airbus jet order this spring

SAS is in talks with Airbus about buying A320neo jets for its short-haul fleet and expects to agree a deal this spring after ending negotiations with rival planemaker Boeing, its finance chief said. Goran Jansson also said that SAS was in talks with Japanese investors about a so-called Japanese operating lease with call option (JOLCO) to fund the planes. JOLCO is a niche aircraft financing structure already used by SAS where an airline leases planes from a Japanese investor and has a buyout option. Jansson, who will take on a new role at the airline in March with a focus on strategy, said in December that SAS needed to invest in 40-50 new aircraft, in addition to planes already on order, and was looking into how to finance that. Airbus's 2017 list price for an A320neo is US$108m. <br/>