Air Lease Corp. to add 60 planes in 2011
In its first quarter results, Air Lease Corp. laid out a plan to boost its fleet to 100 planes by the end of the year. As of May 16, the leasing company boasted 56 craft, which includes a first-quarter addition of nine planes. During the next three quarters, the company is hoping to add 44 more vehicles. The company's fleet is currently composed primarily of B737-800s and Airbus A320-200s.
"We continue to evaluate opportunities on an ongoing basis to acquire attractive aircraft from other leasing companies and our airline customers, as well as opportunistic transactions with the airframe manufacturers," the company wrote in its earnings report, adding that all the aircraft that are to be delivered this year have already been leased. The company's largest lease transaction this quarter belonged to China Eastern; the carrier signed up for 18 planes — 10 new A320-200s, five new B737-800s and three used B767-300ERs.
The company has also leased a significant portion of aircraft to be delivered in the future. It has leased 32 of 38 planned deliveries for 2012 and 9 of 25 planned 2013 additions. The company is projecting deliveries of 24 planes and 19 planes in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The first quarter of 2011 also included Air Lease's initial public offering, which generated $868.1 million. The company sold 34.82 million shares of Class A Common Stock, a 20 percent increase over the initial offering.
