By Business & Finance 
Avolon CEO Dómhnal Slattery pictured at the 2016 Business & Finance Awards, where he picked up the Business Person of the Year award
Avolon’s fleet grew 69% in 2016 to 435 aircraft by year-end and will effectively double again in 2017 on completion of the acquisition of the aircraft leasing business of CIT Group.
Headquartered in Ireland, with offices in the US, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Avolon provides aircraft leasing and lease management services.
The company is now a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of Bohai Leasing, a global leader in transportation leasing, following the completion of a merger back in January 2016. Following completion of the merger, Avolon assumed management of Hong Kong Aviation Capital (HKAC) with a total fleet of over 400 aircraft.
More recently, in October 2016, Avolon announced an agreement to acquire the aircraft leasing business of CIT Group, which will create a leading aircraft leasing business with a fleet of 868 aircraft valued at over $43bn.
Recently, Avolon has made further progress towards the completion of the acquisition of the CIT Group. $8.5bn has been raised in capital markets to finance the acquisition of the CIT Group aircraft leasing business, while receipt of corporate/issuer credit ratings from Fitch (BB), Moody’s (Ba3) and S&P Global (BB+) have been obtained.
The company has also recently appointed three additional independent directors to the Avolon board: Dr Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, Joe Nellis and Denis Kalscheur.
Dr Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh is Professor of Accounting and Dean of University College Dublin (UCD) College of Business and has been published in international peer-reviewed journals on audit and accounting matters. Joe Nellis was most recently a Managing Director of the Business Development team at GE Capital, which oversaw the signing and closing of nearly $200bn of transactions in a 24-month period. Denis Kalscheur is a 25-year aviation industry veteran and previously served in both Vice Chairman and CEO roles at Aviation Capital Group Corp (ACG).
CHINESE INFLUENCE
In March, the firm issued a white paper looking at the development, growth and gradual maturing of China’s domestic airline industry. The paper identifies key drivers of growth and forecasts domestic air travel demand over the next decade.
The paper also examines the factors that influence the development of commercial aviation in China including economic and demographic trends, aviation infrastructure and the industry’s regulatory framework.
Throughout March, Avolon also announced the delivery of one Airbus A320-200N aircraft to Garuda (the ninth Avolon aircraft on lease to Garuda), as well as an Airbus A321-200 to Frontier Airlines (the fourth Avolon aircraft on lease to Frontier Airlines).
Dómhnal Slattery is the founding CEO of Avolon, a global leader in the aircraft leasing industry. His ability to build and rapidly scale a market-leading aircraft leasing platform is evident in his successful establishment of IAMG, RBS Aviation Capital and Avolon through three business cycles – from the early 1990s to today. In 2010, he founded Avolon, a global aircraft leasing business, which, in five years, has been built into one of the top 10 lessors in the world. Avolon listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2014 in what was the largest ever listing on the NYSE by an Irish-founded company. In August 2015, Avolon announced a merger agreement with Chinese leasing company, Bohai, which valued Avolon at $7.6bn. In October 2016, Avolon announced an agreement to acquire the aircraft leasing business of CIT Group. Slattery has a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from University College Galway and is a graduate of the Accelerated Development Programme from the London Business School. He also picked up the 2016 Business Person of the Year award at last December’s Business & Finance Awards.About the CEO
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