AerCap Holdings N.V. (‘AerCap’), together with its subsidiaries, provides a wide range of assets for lease, including narrowbody and widebody aircraft, regional jets, freighters, engines and helicopters.
The company is the industry leader across all areas of aviation leasing, with a portfolio consisting of 3,525 aircraft, engines, and helicopters that were owned, on order, or managed as of December 31, 2024. The company focuses on acquiring in-demand flight equipment at attractive prices, fundi...
AerCap Holdings N.V. (‘AerCap’), together with its subsidiaries, provides a wide range of assets for lease, including narrowbody and widebody aircraft, regional jets, freighters, engines and helicopters.
The company is the industry leader across all areas of aviation leasing, with a portfolio consisting of 3,525 aircraft, engines, and helicopters that were owned, on order, or managed as of December 31, 2024. The company focuses on acquiring in-demand flight equipment at attractive prices, funding them efficiently, hedging interest rate risk prudently, and using its platform to deploy these assets with the objective of delivering superior risk-adjusted returns. The company has the infrastructure, expertise, and resources to execute a large number of diverse transactions in a variety of market conditions. The company’s teams of dedicated marketing and asset trading professionals have been successful in leasing and managing its asset portfolio. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the company executed 812 aviation asset transactions.
Aircraft Leasing
AerCap is the global leader in aircraft leasing, with customers in every major geographical region. As of December 31, 2024, the company owned 1,543 aircraft, managed 179 aircraft, and had 296 new aircraft on order. As of December 31, 2024, the average age of the company’s owned aircraft fleet, weighted by net book value, was 7.4 years. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the weighted average utilization rate for its owned aircraft was 99%, calculated based on the number of days each aircraft was on lease during the year, weighted by the net book value of the aircraft. Approximately 1% of the company’s owned aircraft were undergoing or designated for cargo conversion during the year ended December 31, 2024, and were therefore not calculated as utilized.
AerCap Cargo is a global leader in the air cargo market, with more than 30 years’ experience and a global fleet of over 120 aircraft that are owned, serviced, or committed for conversion. AerCap Cargo provides ten types of modern narrowbody and widebody cargo aircraft to over 20 customers around the world, including e-commerce, express delivery, and general cargo operators. AerCap Cargo also plays a developmental role in the provision of new cargo options, such as the ‘Big Twin’ freighter program between AerCap Cargo and Israel Aerospace Industries, which involves the conversion of the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft into long-haul large-capacity freighters. AerCap Cargo was also involved in the development of the Boeing 767-300BDSF, the launch of Boeing’s 737BCF freighter conversion program, and the A321 freighter conversion programs with EFW and ST Aerospace. AerCap Cargo’s largest customers are Amazon and Maersk.
Engine Leasing
AerCap is the world’s largest lessor of spare engines, with over 1,000 engines, including engines owned and managed by Shannon Engine Support Ltd (‘SES’), its joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines (‘Safran’), and over 150 customers. The company’s spare engine portfolio is predominantly consisted of new technology engines manufactured by General Electric (‘GE’) and CFM International (‘CFMI’), the most liquid engine types that power the world’s most popular and in-demand aircraft, including Airbus A320 and A320neo Family aircraft, and Boeing 737, Boeing 787, and Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
The company has longstanding relationships and contractual commitments with the two biggest manufacturers of commercial aviation engines, GE and CFMI, including financing and managing their spare engine portfolios. The two largest customers of the company’s engine leasing businesses are GE and CFMI. AerCap, GE, and Safran agreed to continue these relationships following the completion of the GECAS Transaction.
Helicopter Leasing
The Milestone Aviation Group (‘Milestone’) is the world’s leading helicopter leasing and financing company, with 322 helicopters owned or on order as of December 31, 2024. Milestone partners with helicopter operators and end-users worldwide, providing a wide array of financial and productivity solutions, including operating leases, purchase-and-leasebacks, secured debt financing, engine leasing, and fleet advisory services. Milestone supports approximately 50 customers in over 35 countries, serving a variety of industries, such as offshore oil and gas, offshore wind, search and rescue (‘SAR’), emergency medical services, police surveillance, and other utility missions. Milestone’s largest customers are CHC Helicopter, Bristow Helicopters, Saudi Aramco, and Omni Helicopters International.
AerCap Materials
AerCap Materials Inc. (‘AerCap Materials’) is a global distributor of airframe and engine components for leading commercial aircraft and engine manufacturers. Since its founding as the Memphis Group in 1971, it has provided quality products and services ranging from spare airframe and engine component distribution, component and asset leasing, consignment services, and asset repair management. AerCap Materials has its own dismantlement facility located in Greenwood, Mississippi. AerCap Materials has a large inventory of aircraft parts to support mid-life and new-generation aircraft, and provides ready access to support various aircraft types, including Boeing 737NG, Boeing 777, Airbus A320 and A320neo Family, and Embraer aircraft.
Aviation Leases and Transactions
The company leases most of its flight equipment to customers under operating leases. Under these leases, the lessee is responsible for the maintenance and servicing of the equipment during the lease term, and the company receives the benefit, and assumes the risks, of the residual value of the equipment at the end of the lease. The company serves approximately 300 customers around the world with comprehensive fleet solutions. The company’s relationships with these customers help it place new flight equipment and remarket existing flight equipment.
Over the life of the company’s flight equipment, it seeks to increase the returns on its investments by managing the lease rates, time off-lease, and financing and maintenance costs, and by carefully timing the sale of its flight equipment assets. The company’s current operating leases have initial terms ranging in length up to approximately 16 years. By varying the company’s lease terms, it mitigates the effects of changes in cyclical market conditions at the time aircraft become eligible for re-lease.
Well in advance of the expiration of an operating lease, the company prioritizes entering into a lease extension with the then-current operator. This reduces the company’s risk of aircraft downtime, as well as aircraft transition costs. The terms of the company’s lease extensions reflect the market conditions at the time, and typically contain different terms from the original lease.
The company performs a review of all its prospective lessees, which generally includes reviewing financial statements, business plans, cash flow projections, maintenance capabilities, operational performance histories, hedging arrangements for fuel, foreign currency, and interest rates, and relevant regulatory approvals and documentation. The company performs on-site credit reviews for new lessees, which typically include extensive discussions with the prospective lessee’s management, before it enters into a new lease. The company also evaluates the jurisdiction in which the lessee operates to ensure it is in compliance with any regulations, and evaluates its ability to repossess its assets in the event of a lessee default.
The company typically requires its lessees to provide a security deposit for their performance under a lease, including the return of the leased asset in the specified maintenance condition at the expiration of the lease.
All of the company’s lessees are responsible for the maintenance and repair of the leased flight equipment, as well as other operating costs during the lease term. Based on the credit quality of the lessee, the company requires some of its lessees to pay supplemental maintenance rents to cover major scheduled maintenance costs. Under the terms of the company’s leases, at lease expiration, it retains excess maintenance rents to the extent that a lessee has paid it more supplemental maintenance rents than it has reimbursed them for their maintenance events. To the extent that the redelivery condition is different from the acceptance condition, the company generally receives cash compensation for the value difference at the time of redelivery. As of December 31, 2024, 32% of its owned aircraft leases provided for supplemental maintenance rental payments.
The company requires the lessee to compensate it if the aircraft is not in the required condition upon redelivery. All of the company’s leases contain provisions regarding its remedies and rights in the event of default by the lessee, and also include specific provisions regarding the required condition of the leased asset upon its redelivery.
The company’s lessees are also responsible for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations governing the leased asset, and all related costs. The company requires its lessees to comply with either the FAA, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (‘EASA’), or their equivalent standards in other jurisdictions.
Aircraft and Engine Services
The company provides aircraft and engine asset management and corporate services to securitization vehicles, joint ventures, and other third parties. As of December 31, 2024, the company had asset management servicing contracts with 21 parties that owned 179 aircraft and 188 engines. Since the company has an established operating system to manage its own aircraft and engines, the incremental cost of providing asset management services to securitization vehicles, joint ventures, and third parties is limited. The company’s primary aircraft and engine asset management activities include: remarketing aircraft and engines for lease or sale; collecting rental and supplemental maintenance rent payments; monitoring aircraft maintenance; monitoring and enforcing contract compliance; accepting delivery and redelivery of aircraft and engines; conducting ongoing lessee financial performance reviews; periodically inspecting the leased aircraft and engines; coordinating technical modifications to aircraft to meet new lessee requirements; conducting restructuring negotiations in connection with lease defaults; repossessing aircraft and engines; arranging and monitoring insurance coverage; registering and de-registering aircraft; arranging for aircraft and engine valuations; and providing market research.
The company charges fees for its aircraft and engine management services based on a mixture of fixed and rental-based amounts, and it also receives performance-based fees related to the managed aircraft or engine lease revenues or sale proceeds.
The company also provides corporate administrative and cash management services to securitization vehicles and joint ventures. The company currently has corporate administration and/or cash management service contracts with eight parties. The company’s corporate administrative services consist primarily of accounting and corporate secretarial services, including the preparation of budgets and financial statements. Cash management services consist primarily of treasury services, such as the financing, refinancing, hedging, and ongoing cash management of these companies.
Aviation Parts and Supply Chain
Through AerCap Materials, the company provides airframe and engine parts and supply chain solutions, and it disassembles aircraft and engines into parts. AerCap Materials sells airframe parts to airlines, maintenance, repair, and overhaul service providers, and aircraft parts distributors.
Business Strategy
The company’s key components of strategy are to manage the profitability of its flight equipment portfolio, manage its flight equipment portfolio, and maintain a diversified customer base.
Joint Ventures
Shannon Engine Support Ltd
SES is a joint venture 50% owned by the company and 50% owned by Safran. SES is headquartered in Shannon, Ireland, with marketing offices in Singapore, Beijing, China, and Budapest, Hungary. SES offers spare engine solutions to CFMI operators, including guaranteed pool access, short-term and long-term leases, trading, and exchanges, all of which can be structured and combined to meet an individual airline’s fleet requirements. SES’s spare engine pools are located at certified MRO facilities around the world, close to international logistics hubs, to easily support airlines operating CFM56 and LEAP powered aircraft.
Relationship with Airbus, Boeing, and Other Manufacturers
The company is one of the largest customers of Airbus and Boeing, measured by deliveries of aircraft through 2024 and its order backlog. The company was also the launch customer of the Embraer E2 program. The company is also among the largest purchasers of engines from each of CFMI, GE Aviation, International Aero Engines, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce. These extensive manufacturer relationships and the scale of the company’s business enable it to place large orders with favorable pricing and delivery terms. In addition, these strategic relationships with manufacturers and market knowledge allow the company to participate in new aircraft designs, which gives it increased confidence in its airframe and engine selections. AerCap cooperates broadly with manufacturers seeking mutually beneficial opportunities.
Regulation
The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (‘ITAR’) and the Export Administration Regulations (‘EAR’) compliance is an integral part of the company’s compliance activities. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Milestone Aviation, is a helicopter operating lessor that engages in defense trade activities. While the company’s fleet is consisted of civil helicopters, certain of the helicopters (generally helicopters configured for SAR or police services missions) are equipped with controlled equipment covered by active ITAR licenses. In view of the company’s defense trade activities, The Milestone Aviation Group LLC is registered with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (‘DDTC’) as an exporter and broker under ITAR.
Trademarks
The company has registered the ‘AerCap’ trademark with various intellectual property offices, including those in the United States, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Benelux, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, the European Union, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, as well as with the World Intellectual Property Organization (‘WIPO’). The company has also filed trademark applications for the ‘AerCap’ logos and the ‘Never Stand Still’ trademark with various intellectual property offices, including those in the United States, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Benelux, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, the European Union, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and WIPO. The Milestone Aviation Group LLC has registered the ‘Milestone’ trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Union Intellectual Property Office, and various local trademark authorities.
Aircraft Acquisitions and Dispositions
During the year ended December 31, 2024, the company purchased 92 new aircraft and sold 98 aircraft from its owned portfolio.
Facilities
The company leases its Dublin, Ireland headquarters office facility under a 25-year lease that began in December 2015 and has an option for it to terminate in 2031. The company leases its Shannon, Ireland office facility under a lease that expires in 2033, with an option for it to terminate in 2029. The company leases its Singapore office facility under a lease that expires in March 2029. The company leases its Miami office facility under a lease that expires in December 2034, with an option for it to terminate in 2030. In addition to the above facilities, the company also leases offices in various locations around the world, including Dublin, Ireland; Memphis, Tennessee; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; London, the United Kingdom; Shanghai, China; and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
History.
AerCap Holdings N.V. was founded in 1995. The company was incorporated in 2006.
