Aircastle Fiscal Q1 Earnings, Revenue Rise Bolstered by Recovery in Jet Travel

(MT Newswires) -- Aircastle reported Wednesday fiscal first quarter results that improved year-over-year as the airline industry continued to rebound from the COVID-19 epidemic.

Net income for the quarter ended May 31 totaled $22.8 million, up from $7.7 million a year earlier. Quarterly revenue rose to $218 million from $175.6 million a year earlier. The improved revenue was largely supported by a $42.6 million gain on the sale of flight equipment, representing a more than 10-fold increase over its $3.7 million gain on equipment sales a year earlier. Lease rental and maintenance revenue also rose modestly over year-ago levels, mostly offsetting narrow year-over-year drops in revenue from direct financing and sales-type leasing activities and a small rise in amortized lease premiums.

Aircastle acquires, leases and sells commercial jetliners to carriers around the world. At the end of the first quarter, the company said it owned or managed (through joint ventures) 253 jets - up five over the previous quarter - that were leased by 73 airlines in 43 countries.

Aircastle last week said its primary shareholders, Marubeni Corp and Mizuho Leasing, agreed to buy an additional $500 million of its equity in two tranches with the first $200 million to be paid in by July 31 and the remaining $300 million expected by the end of May 2024. During a conference call on Wednesday to discuss the quarterly results, Aircastle Chief Executive Mike Inglese said the new money will likely be used to continue building out the company's fleet of narrow-body jetliners, although he acknowledged that the money could also help with a debt payment coming due for the company in September.

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