GE Capital Aviation Services

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS)

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Aviation leasing
Number of locations	Norwalk, Connecticut, United States Shannon, County Clare, Ireland Singapore
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Alec Burger (President & CEO)
Products	Aviation leasing Engine leasing Aircraft parts
Total assets	$46.1 Bn (2015)
Number of employees	500+
Parent	GE Capital
Website	www.gecas.com

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) is an Irish-American commercial aircraft financing and leasing company. It is the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company in the world by number of aircraft. It is part of GE Capital, a company of the large conglomerate General Electric. GECAS buys aircraft from manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing and then leases them to airlines, typically on eight year leases, usually on dry lease contracts. It also buys aircraft from airlines and leases them back. The company has three global headquarters, located in Singapore; Shannon, County Clare and Norwalk, Connecticut.

GECAS has a fleet of 1970 aircraft, used by 270 clients. The primary competition for GECAS is AerCap, although other companies such as Air Lease Corporation, Aviation Capital Group, BBAM and SMBC Aviation Capital also compete with it.

GECAS is a subsidiary of General Electric as is GE Aviation engines, also part of the CFM International joint venture with Safran. Previously, GECAS had a policy of selecting only GE engines for 99% of its airliners, and had only eight B757 with only Pratt & Whitney or Rolls-Royce turbofans. As the Airbus A350 XWB didn't select GE Engines, GECAS would not order it without airline placement. But it finally leased the first A350 operated for Qatar Airlines to diversify assets to reduce risk. GECAS also leases PW powered Bombardier Q400 and ATR 72 and apart GE/CFM support Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and IAE engines.