Aircraft Operating Lessors – Aircraft In-Service vs. On Order

The aircraft operating lease is a major driver of industry growth in aircraft ownership and operation

Aircraft operating leases are now about 40% of all commercial aircraft ownership in the world and may grow to 50% over the long term

While there are dozens of operating lessors, about 20 companies dominate the landscape

Of those 20, two (GECAS and AerCap), are significant outliers with almost 3,000 aircraft between them

There are an additional 10 companies that have fleet sizes of between 200 and 400 aircraft

The scatter plot chart depicts the number of aircraft in-service against the number of aircraft on order by operating lessor company

This chart captures the aircraft fleet size by company and also shows who is primed to grow significantly in relationship to their current fleet

The left lower corner of the chart shows a not very readable cluster of lessors who have sizable aircraft fleets but little or no aircraft on order (we’ll explain why this is in a later post)

GECAS and AerCap have significant market clout as a result of their overall scope, but on a relative basis, don’t have that many aircraft on order given their large size

However, Air Lease Corp, BOC (Bank of China), SMBC, and ICBC are primed to grow with many aircraft orders given their relatively small size in the context of current fleet

Air Lease Corp has more orders than its installed fleet and BOC, SMBC, and ICBC have a total of 600 aircraft on order relative to its 900 aircraft in-service

Finally, Asian lessors have grown significantly in recent years as China, in particular, have been making strong moves in the operating lease space; look for more of that in the future