Lesha Bank to Sell Six Airbus A380s to Emirates in $250 Million Deal
Two of the A380-861 jets have already changed hands, with the remaining four moving to the Dubai carrier by April 2028 as leases run out.
Lesha Bank has agreed to sell six Airbus A380 aircraft to Emirates, a package carrying a combined market value of about $250 million, or QAR 910 million. Two of the jets are already with the Dubai carrier. The other four will follow in phases, the last of them scheduled for April 2028, each handover timed to the point where a current lease runs out.
The aircraft are A380-861s. The transaction runs through an investment structure that Lesha Bank manages for Lesha Aviation Fund. For Emirates, the effect is to convert leased capacity into owned capacity: the airline ends up holding long-term title to jets that already sit in its widebody fleet. The Qatar-listed bank did not disclose the closing price it will receive, any gain the sale is expected to generate, or the date each of the four remaining aircraft will transfer.
Jonathan Skirrow, co-CEO of Lesha Aviation Services, said the spread-out handover reflected the bank's long relationship with Emirates and its focus on structured aviation investments.
The sale follows Lesha Bank's June 2026 acquisition of Amedeo Air Four Plus, whose portfolio held 12 widebody aircraft: six A380s, two Boeing 777-300ERs and four Airbus A350-900s, leased to Emirates and Thai Airways.
Lesha Bank is an independent Sharia-compliant investment bank regulated by the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority and listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange under the ticker QFBQ. It reported net profit of $57.8 million (QAR 210.4 million) for the first nine months of 2026, a rise of 50.2% year on year. Assets under management climbed 101% to $6.5 billion (QAR 23.6 billion).
Emirates is the world's largest operator of the A380, with 116 of the type in its fleet as of November 2025, and it has been steadily buying aircraft it once rented. In its 2025-26 annual results the airline said it had purchased 29 A380s and five Boeing 777s at the end of their leases. Emirates posted record net profit of $5.4 billion (AED 19.7 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, with a fleet of 277 aircraft and 53.2 million passengers carried. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline & Group, ranked first on the 2026 Top 100 Travel and Tourism Leaders list.
The trade points to a narrowing pool of A380 owners. The aircraft is out of production, lessors are winding down positions as contracts mature, and the biggest operator of the type is buying the metal back. For Lesha, the Amedeo portfolio supplied the inventory; the Emirates relationship supplied the exit.
