Saudi Arabia launches aircraft lessor to support its aviation growth plans

Saudi Arabia is launching an aircraft leasing company, AviLease, part of the kingdom’s moves to diversify its economy away from oil.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has approximately $620 billion of assets under management, said the new company’s fleet will consist of new generation narrow-body and wide-body aircraft from the world’s top manufacturers.

It plans to start with purchase-and-lease-back transactions with airlines, portfolio acquisitions and direct orders from aircraft manufacturers.

However, AviLease will also look to grow via acquisitions of other companies, PIF said in a statement on June 30, 2022. The leasing company will offer leasing, trading, and asset management services and be managed by a “top-tier team”.

“The launch of “AviLease” is a core element of Saudi Arabia’s expanding aviation ecosystem, and is in line with PIF’s strategy to enable the capabilities of promising sectors in Saudi Arabia,” it declared in the statement.

PIF said the launch of AviLease will also help to support growth in the aviation sector, which is one part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan.

According to a report in Al Arabiya on May 10, 2022, the Saudi Arabia General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) plans to boost airports’ capacity to handle 330 million passengers by 2030, including the construction of two major airports in Riyadh and Jeddah.