• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.28-44
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• 2023

This study investigates aircraft lessor business models by studying cases and interviewing experts to analyze investors and business strategies of aircraft lessor. The results confirm that there is a wide range of investors including institutional investors, financial institutions, insurance companies, corporations, and wealthy individuals for aircraft lessor. Aircraft lessors can be categorized based on its required rate of return (cost of capital) into bank-investing core, institutional investor-investing value-added, and hedge fund-investing opportunistic. Aircraft lessor decides leasing rate by aircraft purchasing price and lessee's credit rating. Core aircraft lessors invest in new aircrafts for new placement or sale-and-leaseback strategy requiring little technical risk in aircraft, value-added lessors invest in middle-aged aircrafts for re-leasing, opportunistic lessors invest in old aircrafts for freighter conversion or part-out strategy requiring high level of expertise. This study provides insights for future Korean aircraft lessor establishment and investment.