- Latest edition May 28th: Retirement rates and increased deliveries
- May 14th: Spirit complications
- April 30th: Demand for aviation assets solid despite airline industry challenges
- April 16th: Sumisho ALC gets off the ground
- April 2nd: Jet fuel prices and airline hedging strategies
- March 19th: Air travel to more than double by 2050
Aircraft ABS FTAI's asset management strategy reaches milestone with debut ABS issuance
Leasing Business Daiwa Securities takes stake in Airborne Capital, aims to expand Japanese investment product offeringAirborne Capital has added Japan's Daiwa Securities to its share register with the companies deepening their connection having earlier in 2026 entered into a marketing, distribution and operational agreement with Daiwa on an open-ended aircraft fund. This latest move comes as Daiwa, one of Japan's leading financial institutions, described the JOL leasing products it offers in conjunction with Airborne as 'a key product offering for our ultra-high-net-worth client base.' Airborne was launched in 2017 by the highly experienced founding management team of Ramki Sundaram, Cian Dooley and Anand Ramachandran and have previously received backing from Irish financial services firm FEXCO Group and the investment management arm of French bank Natixis. Aviation Economics Excessive regulation stifling growth of EU air linksNew data from IATA shows air connectivity to and in the EU hardly grew in 2025 with the industry group citing high costs and ‘onerous regulation’ as key reasons behind a net growth rate of just 1% for the year. It highlights a number of areas that should be targetted to reinvigorate aviation growth, including reforms of passenger rights and reducing the cost of SAF through the introduction, amongst other things, of a book-and-claim process to make airline purchases of SAF more efficient. |
In this issue In this issueWith the supply of new aircraft increasing, and likely to further accelerate now that Boeing have got a regulatory 'thumbs up' to increase its MAX run rate from 42 to 47 aircraft, a new analysis of recent aircraft supply-demand shows that a sharp increase in aircraft retirements may be required in the coming years to prevent a significant oversupply in the market. Investment in leasing continues with Daiwa's agreement to take a stake in Airborne featuring in this issue. Daiwa's move is driven by the popularity of its JOL-based products in its home market of Japan, and the potential to expand such products beyond the HNWI segment, we also feature Azorra's latest moves as it scales up its regional aircraft business and FTAI's latest financial milestone for its asset management strategy. Fleet Planning Aircraft retirement rates may need to double as new aircraft supply grows
Aviation Business Azorra closes major E-Jet portfolio acquisition, acquires A220 orders from DAEAzorra, the regional aircraft specialist, has successfully completed the acquisition of a portfolio of 49 Embraer E-Jets, along with two engines, from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE). The agreement to sell the aircraft was announced in tandem with DAE Capital's acquisition of Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) in May 2025. The completion of the deal, and other recent trades with DAE, gives scale to Azorra with its portfolio of owned, managed and committed aircraft and engines now exceeding 300 assets, and allows DAE to further tilt the balance of its portfolio away from regional aircraft. |
FTAI completed the $2 billion fundraising for its inaugural Strategic Capital vehicle in October 2025 and has been busily acquiring mid-life current tech Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 narrowbodies as the firm, a leading player in the aftermarket for the current tech engines that power those aircraft, looks to become one of the largest global lessors of these aircraft types. An update from the firm shows its SC currently owns 292 aircraft and its asset management strategy has reached another financing milestone with the issuance of its inaugural aircraft ABS.
A recent aircraft supply-demand analysis from BNP Paribas Securities has compared passenger aircraft capacity vs traffic demand with the authors of the research note estimating the retirement rates needs to grow from the recent rate of 1.5-2% to 4%+ by the end of this decade to prevent a significant oversupply in the market. The authors don't see the recent higher fuel prices as a trigger for increased retirement rates, rather increased confidence from airlines that new aircraft supply will grow and allow them to retire older equipment that is already flying less.