Mideast Aircraft Lessors Try to Re-Emerge
Alafco, the most profitable aircraft leasing company in the Middle East region, has an order book of 117 aircraft in the 2017-21 time frame. They include twenty 737-8 Max jets, 85 A320 neos and 12 A350-900s. At the other end of the scale, Sahaab Leasing has approximately a dozen A320s and essentially is an in-house lessor for Jazeera Airways.
Alafco, the most profitable aircraft leasing company in the Middle East region, has an order book of 117 aircraft in the 2017-21 time frame. They include twenty 737-8 Max jets, 85 A320 neos and 12 A350-900s. At the other end of the scale, Sahaab Leasing has approximately a dozen A320s and essentially is an in-house lessor for Jazeera Airways.

Students of human psychology need look no further than the fable of the tortoise and the hare to understand the situation today in the region’s leasing sector. In the waning years of the boom, a number of new entrants made valiant plays, but some appear to have had to pause to reconsider. Despite the aviation boom in the Middle East, few new major regional entrants into this esoteric business have come into existence and, of those that have, the 2008 bust clearly had a major negative impact.