The proposed $30 billion merger of aircraft leasing giants Gecas and AerCap and the likely further consolidation of lessors in the wake of Covid-19 does not seem to worry airlines and aircraft manufacturers, at least not publicly. "My first observation on the lessors is that they have remained very strong over the last year," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told analysts during the company's first-quarter earnings conference call. "They've been instrumental in enabling that industry to keep moving forward in a very, very challenging situation. It relies on the stability of the financial system. There's no financial crisis, and that's very important for us." Faury acknowledged that Airbus considers the consolidation of some lessors important. "There are pros and cons in these situations. But overall, I would say, we're fine with it," he stressed. Willie Walsh, director-general of the International Air Transport Association, also dismissed concerns about too much consolidation and the potential risk of anti-competitive behavior in the leasing sector. "It is still a pretty fragmented industry," he said, speaking to media during a recent briefing on the impact of the pandemic on the global aviation industry. Even the combination of Gecas and Ireland's AerCap-the largest aircraft lessors in the world by portfolio value, with a combined fleet of more than 2,000 airplanes and an additional 500 on order-does not represent a significant percentage of the supply from the lessors, he asserted.
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