Aercap has revealed that its second-quarter net income stood at $331.5 million, an increase of 23% when compared to the same period last year.
The Dublin-based lessor says the rise can be attributed to high lease rents resulting from the increase in average lease assets as well as higher net gain on sale of assets.
Lease revenue was $1.2 million, compared with $1.1 million for the same period in 2018, primarily due to the delivery of new technology aircraft from April 2018 through June 2019, resulting in a $2.7 billion increase in average lease assets.
Aercap's overall revenue totalled $1.3 billion, up 7% year-over-year. The firm's net gains during the quarter included $78.2 million from the sale of 22 aircraft: nine Airbus A320s, three A330s, four Boeing 737NGs, one 737 Classic, one 777-200ER, one 777-300, two 747s and one 767.
Meanwhile, expenses stood at $899.1 million, down 1% from the same period last year.
Cowen & Company analyst Helane Becker commented: "We expect $2 billion of aircraft sales to occur this year, up from our prior estimate of $1.5 billion; First half 2019 aircraft sales were $733 million compared to last year's first-half sales of $1.2 billion.
"We expect AerCap to continue to be opportunistic selling aircraft when it makes sense and to extract the most value from the fleet. That said, we don't expect 2020 sales to mirror 2019 sales; we are likely to see sales proceeds (~$1 Bn in proceeds) and margins (10.9% in 2019 and 7.2% in 2020) be moderate in 2020.