Aircastle CEO Sees No Impact From New Airbus, Boeing Planes
April 12 2012 - 1:43PM
Dow Jones News
The head of one of the world's largest aircraft leasing
companies said Thursday new planes planned by Airbus and Boeing Co.
(BA) weren't hitting rental rates for existing planes.
Ron Wainshal, chief executive officer of Aircastle Ltd. (AYR),
also said the company would boost its planned spending on planes
this year, with more opportunities emerging as banks pulled back
from financing in the sector.
The impact of the new Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max on
aircraft rental rates has been a subject of intense industry
debate. International Lease Finance Corp., the world's
second-largest lessor, has taken billions of dollars in write-downs
on its fleet, citing the depressive impact of new, yet-to-fly
planes.
Other leasing companies have not followed suit.
"Max and neo [have] had zero impact on rentals," said Wainshal
at an investor conference.
He said rental rates for some aircraft types--notably the Boeing
737-800--have recovered "modestly," and are outperforming the
Airbus A320. Both planes are due to be replaced by versions with
new engines later in the decade.
Wainshal said Aircastle planned to invest at least $700 million
in planes this year, $100 million higher than previously
forecast.
ILFC's writedowns over the past two years have rattled an
industry that had prospered from the growing popularity of airlines
renting rather than buying planes.
The company attributed part of the charges to the depressing
impact on existing plane values from new aircraft.
Most rivals, including the market-leading Gecas unit of General
Electric Co. (GE) did not take parallel writedowns, and have said
it's too soon to determine the impact of new planes that won't come
into service until late 2015 at the earliest.
-By Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4135;
doug.cameron@dowjones.com
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