Aircraft Financing and Leasing in India Challenges & Opportunities : An Exploratory Study of Developing Aircraft Financing and Leasing in India

Aircraft leasing industry is a significant industry in the world today. Activities of the leasing firms have increased drastically over the last few decades. Indian aviation industry has seen an unprecedented growth in air passenger traffic both international and domestic over the past decade. Over the past few years it has been observed that the geography of the operations for aircraft leasing industry have been moving fast from western nations to eastern nations due to presence of a strong and a stable financial market and active involvements of state. Today five out of the twelve biggest lessors belong to Asia. They have grown in size because of frequent acquisitions, collaborations and partnerships, China being the most prominent example of such development. The synergies from inorganic growth have been pivotal in the drastic growth of aircraft leasing companies in China. India is a laggard in this segment of aviation industry and must soon explore and derive strategies to develop a robust aircraft leasing industry in the country. Having experienced a surge in aircraft demand, many Indian airlines are meeting this demand through offshore aircraft lessors and paying them in dollars. An attempt has been made in this paper to identify the challenges in air craft leasing and financing which present good opportunities for India to develop this industry. For that, the paper first discusses the global scenario of aircraft leasing industry which is followed by the aircraft leasing industry in India. To draw some lessons from the Chinese experience it then covers in brief the Chinese aircraft leasing industry. This is followed by details covering challenges and opportunities for this sector and suggests the ways to make India a favourable destination for aircraft leasing business