Lessors in the
post-pandemic world — April 2021

Resilience was the key word for the CEOs of the operating lessors, as they recounted how their companies have been impacted by the Covid-19 shock, through airline bankruptcies, lease defaults and deferrals and sharp falls in asset values. One might have expected these tribulations to have depressed the lessors’ market values, but investors appear to have regained full confidence in the aircraft operating business.

Share prices of quoted lessors have rebounded from the lows of the early months of the pandemic and, in the cases of AerCap and ALC, have touched five-year highs while BOC Aviation claimed early this year to have achieved the highest market capitalisation in the global aircraft leasing industry (see charts). Confidence in the sector goes beyond the post-pandemic euphoria that has driven airline share prices; there is a feeling that the restructuring of the aviation industry will boost the leasing sector.