Fleets of 2 thousand planes and tens of billions in assets, here are the true masters of the skies – WWN

The Airbus A320 branded Ec-Jzi is one of the 125 aircraft in the fleet of Vueling, a low-cost company owned by Iag, the Spanish-British holding company that owns British Airways and Iberia. The jet is stationed at Rome Fiumicino and connects the Italian capital with several European cities. The Airbus — which has been flying in the yellow-grey livery since 2006 — is not owned by Vueling but by AerCap. And according to insiders, the monthly rental fee for that model (and with those features) today is around 150 thousand dollars.

Nearly 500 companies

The Irish AerCap is the global giant in the sector with around 1,900 aircraft in its portfolio which have a value of around 60 billion dollars. Together with 488 other companies – including those that have only one example – it powers the companies’ fleets, obviously for a fee. So much so that half of the aircraft that take us every day from one part of Italy and the world to another – with the liveries and historic brands of the airlines – are in the hands of those who rent jets professionally.

The two leasing

In particular, there are two types of contracts: operating leasing and financial leasing. The first is a short-medium term agreement that allows the carrier to use a lessor’s aircraft without owning it, a way to have more flexibility in the composition of its fleet and less significant debt. Financial leasing involves the lessor purchasing an aircraft chosen by the airline which will also be the actual user in exchange for a rental fee. Upon expiry, the carrier can extend the contract or purchase the jet.

How vectors work

The strategies, even among the giants, are different. The largest carrier in the world by fleet size, American Airlines, has 1,002 aircraft: exactly half of these are leased (almost all operational). On the opposite side there is Ryanair: Europe’s main low-cost company has 530 Boeings (between 737 classics and 737 Max) all owned, while it leases the 28 Airbuses of Lauda Europe, contracts actually inherited from the acquisition of carrier founded by former Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda.

The fleet

Of the approximately 26 thousand commercial aircraft in activity these days – excluding military, cargo and private ones – just under 13 thousand are owned by the so-called lessors, according to the data provided to Courier from the specialized platform Ch-Aviation, for a total value of at least 318 billion dollars, estimates the industry magazine Airfinance Journal. One plane in twelve flying above our heads is used to transport passengers by AerCap.

By numerousness

The top ten of the (true) masters of the skies is twofold. On the one hand those who have the greatest number of planes, on the other those who have the fleet with the highest market value because they have newer or larger examples. In the first case, after AerCap, in second place is Smbc Aviation Capital (Irish headquarters, for tax reasons, but Japanese ownership) with 719 aircraft. Then another Irishman, Avolon, with 576 aircraft, thus surpassing the American Air Lease Corporation (562).

By value

In the ranking that looks at value, after AerCap and Smbc Capital (around 29 billion dollars) there is the American Air Lease Corporation (almost 27 billion) which leads Avolon (just under 22 billion). The American Bbam and the Asian Boc Aviation (based in Singapore) have a different number of aircraft – 481 for the former, 449 for the latter – but if the fleets are evaluated the number is the same: 19.2 billion dollars.

The Russian case

Being a lessor is a profitable business, but not without risks. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and sanctions were implemented, Western rental companies could no longer do business with Russian Federation airlines. The result: 470 aircraft remained hostage in Moscow and surrounding areas and recovering them was impossible for several months, also because in the meantime a national law authorized local carriers to re-register the jets with Russian license plates.

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