Leased aircraft expected to grow to 50% by end of decade

Leased aircraft are expected to grow from 38% to 50% of the world’s total fleet by the end of the decade, according to CIT’s Jeff Knittel, who chaired a very bullish panel of aircraft lessors on Tuesday at the ISTAT Americas 2013 conference in Orlando. Air Lease Corp. chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy concurred with Knittel and said he was pleasantly surprised with the events of 2012 where oil prices were manageable and OEM production rate increases did not negatively affect ...