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AerCap Holdings N.V.

AerCap buys airplanes and leases them to airlines around the world.

AerCap is the world's biggest owner of commercial airplanes, and it doesn't fly a single one of them. Instead, it buys jets from Boeing and Airbus, then rents them out to airlines — often for years at a time. Airlines love this because planes cost a fortune, and leasing lets them grow routes without borrowing billions. AerCap makes money from the monthly rent, and it also profits when it sells planes at the end of their life, usually after stripping them for parts. Roughly all of its revenue comes from leasing, plus a smaller slice from selling aircraft and engines.

Think of it as the landlord of the sky. Airlines are like tenants who'd rather pay rent than tie up cash buying the building. AerCap's customers are airlines of every size, from flag carriers to budget upstarts, spread across dozens of countries. The business is very sensitive to two things: what airplanes are worth, and how much it costs AerCap to borrow money, since it funds those planes largely with debt. That's why interest rates and used-plane prices matter enormously.

The company is based in Dublin, Ireland, and listed in New York. It became a giant in 2021 when it bought General Electric's aircraft leasing arm, a deal that roughly doubled its fleet. Since then it has been a huge cash machine: it buys back its own stock, pays a modest dividend, and reinvests in new planes. It also owns one of the largest aircraft engine leasing businesses on the planet, which quietly adds steady profit. Recently, the big forces shaping AerCap's world are travel demand, plane shortages from Boeing and Airbus, and the cost of borrowing — when new planes are hard to get, the rent on existing ones goes up, and that's good for the landlord.

Saved answer · last researched 10 Oct 2026