Leasing in Transition : An Empirical Study of IFRS 16 Paragraph 102A in the Airline Industry

Sammanfattning

Background: IFRS 16 significantly changed lease accounting by requiring lessees to recognise most leases on the balance sheet. IASB decided to implement a new amendment that came into effect in 2024 called paragraph 102A in order to further clarify measurement of lease liabilities arising from sale-and-leaseback transactions. This amendment is particularly relevant in the aviation industry which extensively utilizes leasing and sale-and-leaseback. Despite this, there is limited empirical research on whether paragraph 102A led to an observable effect in financial reporting outcomes and market valuation in the aviation industry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the implementation of IFRS 16 102A was associated with observable changes in financial reporting outcomes and market valuation among publicly listed airlines engaging in sale-and-leaseback transactions compared to airlines without such arrangements. Method: This study applies a quantitative research design using archival data from annual reports and market data for 2023 and 2024. The sample consists of publicly listed IFRS-reporting airlines divided into a treatment group with disclosed sale-and-leaseback activity and a control group without such disclosed activity. The analysis is conducted using descriptive statistics, OLS regressions with a difference-in-difference structure and a Mann-Whitney U test as a robustness check. All tests were conducted in Excel. Conclusion: The findings indicate limited evidence that IFRS 16 102A produced statistically significant changes in financial reporting outcomes and market valuation among airlines engaging in sale-and-leaseback transactions. Although descriptive changes were observed, the statistical results did not show consistent differential effects between treatment and control group. This suggests that broader industry conditions had a stronger influence on airlines financial performance during the period.