The 3,000-plus workers in the Irish aircraft leasing business each earned €206,000 on average last year, new figures show.
The Republic is home to the world’s top aviation lessors, including AerCap, Avolon and SMBC Aviation Capital, along with many others, buying aircraft from manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing, and renting them to airlines.
Figures published by the State’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) show these businesses owned aircraft worth €268 billion at the end of 2024.
It calculates that 3,005 people worked in aircraft leasing last year, earning a total of €620 million, slightly over €206,000 each on average.
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Caoimhe Johnson, statistician in the CSO’s national accounts division, said on Thursday that the business had grown over the last few years.
“People employed in the industry rose from 2,804 in 2019 to 3,005 in 2024, with total earnings increasing from €517 million to €620 million over the same period,” she added.
Average pay increased 11 per cent during that time, from €185,000 in 2019.
Lessors employed 1,853 men and 1,152 women in 2024. Women earned an average of €137,168 while their male colleagues received €249,318.
The CSO cautions that as not all staff surveyed had worked a full 52 weeks, it had added up all the weeks worked and divided its total by 52.
The aircraft leasing sector has continued expanding over the last five years, despite many countries grounding airlines during the 2020 Coivid pandemic and the Ukraine war’s subsequent outbreak, which resulted in many companies losing aircraft leased to Russian airlines.
Demand for aircraft is growing around the world, particularly in Asia, where companies say that increasing numbers of working people can now afford to fly.
The CSO report, Aircraft Leasing in Ireland 2024, shows that China was responsible for 9 per cent of global income from leasing activity over the last 10 years, while India accounted for 6 per cent.
Lessors earned €19.5 billion from renting aircraft to airlines last year, 59 per cent more than in 2014, when the figure was €12.3 billion. The industry earned €2.1 billion in profits last year.
Companies use their own cash and loans to buy the aircraft. Irish aviation lessors owed €149.3 billion to lenders last year, while shareholders had provided businesses with €52.8 billion.
Bonds – another form of borrowing – accounted for €28.1 billion of the finance that Irish lessors had raised by the end of 2024, according to the CSO.
