The story
Aercap traces its history to one of the first aircraft leasing companies, Guinness Peat Aviation, founded in 1975 by Tony Ryan. In 1998, it became AERFI after a bailout from Texas Pacific Group. In 2000, it was acquired by Debis AirFinance, owned by Daimler Chrysler, for $750 million.
In 2005, Debis AirFinance was acquired by affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, and renamed AerCap.
In 2006, the company set up AerVenture, a 50/50 joint venture with LoadAir/Al Fawares. In 2009, after its partners refused to fund a capital contribution, Waha Capital acquired a 50% stake and became partners with AerCap.
In November 2006, the company became a public company via an initial public offering.
In March 2010, the company acquired Genesis Lease at a discount to book value as a result of the financial crisis, following this transaction Paul Dacier and Michael Gradon joined the AerCap board. By 2013, the affiliates of Cerberus sold substantially all of their shares in the company.
2014 ILFC acquisition
In May 2014, the company acquired International Lease Finance Corporation from American International Group (AIG) for $3.0 billion of cash and $4.6 billion in stock.
The deal gave AerCap $43 billion in total assets and a fleet of over 1,300 aircraft, making it the largest in the world by fleet value, and second to competitor GE Capital Aviation Services by fleet count.
In January 2015, the company moved its assets and headquarters to Ireland. In June 2015, AerCap signed an agreement with Boeing for an order of 100 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft with deliveries starting in 2019. In June 2015, AIG sold about 71.2 million shares in a public offering and AerCap purchased an additional 15.7 million of its shares from AIG. In August 2015, AIG completed its departure from the airplane-leasing business with the sale of the additional 10.7 million shares.
Read the full text
By the end of 2015, AerCap's portfolio consisted of 1,697 aircraft that were owned, on order, under contract or managed (including aircraft owned by AerDragon, a non-consolidated joint venture). The average age of the owned fleet as of 31 December 2015 was 7.7 years and the average remaining contracted lease term was 5.9 years. In 2015, AerCap leased, purchased and sold 405 aircraft. The company signed lease agreements for 276 aircraft and purchased 46 new aircraft. AerCap executed sale and part-out transactions for 83 aircraft and signed financing transactions for US$7.3 billion.
In February 2016, AerCap reported record 2015 financial results and authorized a share repurchase program of $400 million.
In 2016, AerCap signed lease agreements for 279 aircraft, purchased 38 and sold 141 aircraft, and signed financing transactions for $4.6 billion; as of 31 December 2016, it has 1,566 owned, managed or on order aircraft in its portfolio.
In June 2017, Aercap placed an order for 30 Boeing 787-9s, valued at $8.1 billion at list prices at the Paris Air Show.
AerCap announced on 28 December that it exercised options to purchase 50 A320neo Family aircraft to be delivered from 2022, bringing its A320neo Family portfolio to 270 owned and on order.
In March 2021, AerCap signed a deal with start-up long-haul, low-cost airline Norse Atlantic Airways, for the lease of six used Boeing 787-9s and three used Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
2021 GECAS acquisition
In March 2021, Aercap announced they had reached a deal to acquire GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) from General Electric for US$24 billion in cash, US$1 billion of AerCap notes and approximately 46% of the combined business in shares. The acquisition was approved by AerCap shareholders in May 2021. In November, the company completed the acquisition for 111.5 million AerCap shares, approximately $23 billion of cash and $1 billion of AerCap notes. In 2022, the company moved its U.S. headquarters from Los Angeles to Miami.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
The company was negatively affected by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the international sanctions that followed. At the beginning of the invasion, it had 152 aircraft valued at $2.5 billion in Russia and Ukraine, which foreign companies were unable to recover or service. In May 2022, the company reported a net loss of $2 billion due to the seizure of its planes and engines by the Russian authorities. 113 of its planes were seized in response to sanctions triggered by the war in Ukraine.
AerCap had initially written off or impaired $3.16 billion of assets in relation to the Russian situation although some recoveries were made leaving an overall net charge of $2.66 billion.
In September 2023 an agreement was reached with Aeroflot regarding a compensation package for 17 aircraft stranded in Russia with the payment of a $645 million being made for the settlement, resulting in the aircraft now being owned by Aeroflot.
Further cash settlements were received in December 2023 relating to aircraft formerly leased to S7 and Ural Airlines for approximately $572 million in respect of 18 aircraft and one spare engine and (ii) 29 aircraft and four spare engines.
In June 2025, London's High Court ruled that AerCap can recover more than $1 billion from their insurers in relation to the almost 150 jets stuck in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
From Wikipedia’s article on AerCap, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8