Are Airlines Beginning To Feel The Strain?

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Window Seat, our Aviation Week Network air transport podcast.

I'm Air Transport World European Bureau Chief Victoria Moores. Welcome on board. This week,

I'm joined by John Evans, who is the founder and chief executive of Florida-based aircraft

lessor Azora. Welcome, John. Happy to be here. I do prefer aisle seats, though, by the way.

Okay. Hopefully, we can make you as comfortable as possible during this one with that view out

across the industry, which will be one of the places where we'll be starting. But before we

check in on that, just a little bit of background. Now, John, you've been in the commercial aircraft

leasing industry for the past 30 years. And during that time, you founded three aircraft

less sores. So that's dating back to Indigo Aviation, followed by Jetscape.

then Azora, which is your most recent leasing company. Before that, you worked for ILFC. So

you've really got that experience of looking out across the industry and watching what's going on

in the aviation market. So with that in mind, I wondered if you might be able to share with us

the kind of trends that you're seeing right now as we head into the final quarter of 2024.

Thanks for that introduction on your question regarding recent industry trends.

We are seeing some strains around the edges with some of our airline customers.

And I think you've seen some of that in the press with Azul going through some restructuring now with their lessors.

They've faced some unique challenges in the South American market with some flooding in southern Brazil and one of their biggest markets, devaluation of their currency.

We're also seeing some stress with some of the U.S. carriers.

low-cost carriers and

So we do see some, you know, it is also, by the way, one of the most exciting times in my 40, nearly 40 years in the industry for a lessor.

There are a lot of opportunities, but there's a bit of stress that we see in the next couple of quarters.

I think where the lessors really have can play a role is in helping to redeploy assets where there's demand.

The demand globally for aircraft exceeds supply.

So meanwhile, though, we do have some operators that have big order book positions that may have a bit too much coming in the near term.

So that actually creates an opportunity.

I think you've seen in the press AirCap working on creative deals with Spirit Airlines on some of their order book.

JetBlue deferring new aircraft deliveries during a time when there's a lot of demand for those aircraft in other parts of the world.

So we are seeing some some strain with some airlines and some challenges.