Avolon reports 22 3Q lease transactions as owned, managed fleet grows

Dublin-based Avolon has completed 22 lease transactions during the 2017 third quarter, the company said Oct. 4.

Avolon’s 10 aircraft deliveries during the quarter included six transitions, and nine managed aircraft were among the company’s 11 aircraft sold during the period.

The Irish lessor’s third-quarter lease transactions—comprising new aircraft leases, second leases and lease extensions—included a contract with Azul Brazilian Airlines for five Airbus A330-900neos. The first deliveries of Azul’s new 298-seat A330neos are slated for late 2018.

At the end of the 2017 third quarter, Avolon reported an owned and managed fleet of 567 aircraft, more than doubled from the 247 owned and managed aircraft a year ago.

Avolon is committed to 348 new aircraft, including an MOU for 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, with purchase options for an additional 50 of the type, as announced at the Paris Air Show in June. The company’s client base has nearly doubled to 151 airline customers in 65 countries since the end of 3Q 2016. All totaled, Avolon has an owned, managed and committed fleet of 915 as of Sept. 30.

A considerable portion of Avolon’s growth in assets over the past year comes from the company’s acquisition of New York-based lessor CIT Group, which was finalized in April. In its 3Q 2017 business update, Avolon said the “CIT integration has been completed on target with all data migrated to independent Avolon operating systems and full integration of people, processes and risk framework for the combined business.”

Avolon absorbed CIT Group’s fleet of 334 owned and managed aircraft as part of the acquisition, plus 133 aircraft CIT had ordered or committed to purchase.

Avolon is a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of China’s Bohai Capital Holding Co.

During this past quarter, Avolon bought out the remaining minority interest shares of Hong Kong Aviation Capital (HKAC), also a Bohai subsidiary, becoming HKAC’s 100% owner. According to Aviation Week Fleet Discovery data, as of Sept. 14 HKAC owned and managed 54 aircraft, with commitments for 40 Airbus A320neos and 30 A321neos. Avolon is now the sole aircraft leasing entity under Bohai Leasing.

As of Sept. 30, the entire Avolon fleet has an average owned age of 5.1 years, with an average remaining lease term of 6.7 years. The company added $629 million in new debt during the quarter. Year-to-date, Avolon has raised $14 billion in total capital in both new equity and new debt, $9.8 billion of which was raised in capital markets, the company said.