'The Trading, Investing and Aircraft Financing Ecosystem' at AFCDublin 2019
A stellar line-up of leading specialists in the aviation finance industry, with a particular focus on aircraft trading, are at the heart of the annual conference of Aviation Finance in Dublin Castle, Ireland, on October 15th next. ‘Trading aircraft to drive returns’ for vendors, investors and market makers, will be the focus, and participating as speakers, will be representatives of the top players from all parts of the market, on the sell and the buy sides.

Featuring the most senior executives from the world’s most active traders, the line-up of speakers so far announced includes the new 3 year president of ISTAT, CMO of Merx Aviation Finance, Gerry Butler, AerCap, CEO Aengus Kelly, CDB Aviation’s President and Chief Commercial Officer Patrick Hannigan, AerCap's Head of Trading & Portfolio Management, Bart Ligthart, SMBC Aviation Capital’s Head of Aircraft Trading, Michael Weiss, GECAS' Trading head Alan Buckley, and Carlyle Aviation Management Vice President, Aircraft Trading, Peter Blakeney.
Pat Hannigan


The conference will take place in conjunction with the Financial Centres Summit, which is also being held in Dublin Castle the following day. This will be addressed by the chairman of the USA’s Securities & Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken Clarke MP, ‘father’ of the House of Commons, UK.

That aircraft trading, financing and investing is ‘still only in its infancy’ is a view put forward by ISTAT’s incoming president, Gerry Butler, of Merx Aviation Finance in a recent article in the institution’s newsletter, Jettrader at the outset of his new two year term as president.

It is a concept that is well familiar to readers of this publication, and consistent with this, we shall be focusing at next October’s event on the concepts that have appeared in this publication, and in developments that we have reported on, including in this issue itself, that are helping to extend the spheres of finance and trading to achieve a ‘win win’ result, for both investors, vendors, and manufacturers, and indeed all with an interest in good aviation governance and economics.

Innovation will be a theme of these discussions also, as we will look at how new developments, some of which have already been covered in Aviation Finance will play out to facilitate dealmaking and sound investment propositions.

Key topics to be covered will include:
(1) the functionality and resourcing needed to operate a state of the art aircraft trading unit;
(2) what aircraft types best suit aircraft trading and what challenges exist for aircraft with smaller volumes and user groups;
(3) How independent assessors in helping price discovery for aircraft traders worldwide;
(4) How should airlines engage with aircraft trading to optimise their fleet finances, and;
(5) How much larger can the aircraft trading universe expand and what regulatory challenges does it face.