AerCap warns of long-term output delays from aircraft manufacturers

At the annual Airline Economics conference in Dublin, Angus Kelly, the CEO of Dublin, Ireland-based AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft lessor, warned that delivery problems currently being faced by aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus resulting in over-promising and under-delivering were likely to continue for many years. Beyond this, Kelly also made it clear that in his opinion, aircraft manufacturers were not being sufficiently transparent with carriers and that notice of any delays to ordered aircraft were being issued far too late in the day.

“The challenge with the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) today is the short-dated nature of how they’re notifying airlines of the delays,” Kelly said. “If you’re an airline looking towards the summer of 2023, you’ve sold the seats, you’ve hired the crews, you’ve booked the slots and if the airplane doesn’t show up, you’re in real trouble,” adding that some airlines were opting to buy 20-year-old aircraft rather than take a risk on new models.

As one of Airbus’ largest customers, he went on to say that: “I think candidly that we have seen Airbus sell too much on massive optimism about what they could deliver. We’ve seen several revisions of what Airbus thought they would deliver in 2022. I think we’re going to see that the feature of the OEMs for years to come.”

According to Reuters news agency, the CEO of rival lessor Air Lease Corporation has issued a similar warning, saying manufacturers would struggle to meet their delivery commitments in 2023 after over-promising to airlines last year. Kelly did strike an optimistic note with regard to the uptick in demand for travel, anticipating that global demand should return to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2023. “While it’s true there’s less disposable income in the wallet, we as the aviation industry, the travel industry are not competing against as many things for our share of the wallet,” he said.