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50-passenger Small Jet Delivered to The Fair Incorporated Under Operating Lease

Jul. 15, 2003

TOKYO(as of July 15, 2003)-- Nissho Iwai Corporation has delivered a Canada Bombardier CRJ200 small jet (50-passenger), under operating lease, to The Fair Incorporated (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Hisatoshi Kiyota). Small jets, as typified by the CRJ200, are called regional jet aircraft. This is the first Japanese delivery of a regional jet aircraft under operating lease.

The Fair Inc., which will introduce the CRJ200 aircraft, was considering its introduction on a lease in order to reduce the burden on funds. The company entered into an agreement with Nissho Iwai, a Bombardier sales agent, on the adoption of a sale and lease back method, under which one sells an asset to the financier and they lease the asset back to one via finance lease. The seven-year lease contract grants The Fair Inc. the right to a three-year extension.

The Fair Inc. operates its own aircraft on Osaka - Sendai/Matsuyama routes, etc. centered mainly on All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (ANA) connecting domestic flights (code-sharing flights) such as Narita - Sapporo/Osaka/Sendai. With the introduction of the subject aircraft, which will be the company's fourth, The Fair Inc. will increase flights for Osaka - Matsuyama. The aircraft is additionally scheduled to be used for new routes; Narita - Hiroshima and Osaka - Oita, which services will start in August and September respectively. The Fair Inc. plans to expand its current operation of three aircraft/five routes (16 flights) to four aircraft/seven routes (24 flights) at a swoop, and will further increase the efficiency of its management.

Nissho Iwai began serving as a sales agent for Bombardier regional aircraft (*) in Japan in 1978, and has received orders from eight companies for a total of thirty-one regional jet and turboprop aircraft since 1996, when it received its first order from Ryukyu Air Communicator (Yamashita-cho, Naha-shi, Okinawa). The body of the Bombardier is of a regional aircraft, which boasts the world's largest sales. Nissho Iwai believes that there will be an increase in the activation of flight services between regional/remote Japanese islands, and will carry out further business development by strengthening cooperation with airline companies and utilizing the company's unique marketing skills.

(*) regional aircraft = regional jet aircraft (jet aircraft) + turboprop airliner (propeller aircraft)

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