Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) said on Wednesday that in the first-half of 2020 it posted a total liquidity of $2.8 billion, including $600 million in unrestricted cash and $2.2 billion in long-term committed available lines of credit

In the first half, DAE's owned, managed and mandated-to-manage fleet stayed stable at 400+ aircraft while the firm sold or novated 17 aircraft, acquired five aircraft, transitioned or extended leases on 23 aircraft, and negotiated 41 lease extensions subject to documentation.

"Since the onset of the pandemic, we have transitioned 11 aircraft with 18 ferry flights to and from 9 countries. Portfolio lease utilization remained high and is above 99 per cent. The managed aircraft portfolio grew to 73 aircraft," a DAE statement said.

For 2019, DAE posted a total revenue of $1.421 billion and a profit before tax of $413.6 million.

Firoz Tarapore, DAE's CEO, said the first half of 2020 has proven to be the most challenging half year ever for the global aviation industry.

"As we continue to navigate through uncertain times, DAE has focused on executing well on the fundamentals. During the last six months, we have transitioned aircraft to new airline customers, we have actively taken back aircraft from airlines that did not need capacity and placed them with other existing clients, and we have grown our managed asset portfolio," said Tarapore.

Over the six months, DAE repurchased its own bond valued at $187 million. Over the next 12 months, it has only one bond maturity of U$430 million in August 2020.

"DAE continues to receive rent deferral requests. To date, we have granted 29 rent deferral requests totaling aggregate rent of approximately 12 per cent of annual reported revenue. We are currently evaluating an additional 28 rent deferral requests totaling aggregate rent of approximately six per cent of annual reported revenue. We expect to provide additional assistance to our clients and we also expect arrears to climb as our clients continue to refine their operating models," said the company.