Apollo Aviation Group held a celebratory luncheon on Friday 20 January to mark its 15th anniversary as a business and its tenth anniversary in Ireland.
William Hoffman, Apollo Aviation’s chairman said: “We’re thrilled to be celebrating such important milestones following a critical time in our development where we have, in the last twelve months, completed two asset backed securitizations, grown our fleet by 64 percent and increased our assets under management by 42 percent. From starting out as an aircraft teardown and part-out specialist, we have evolved into a $3.5 billion boutique aviation asset manager with a fast-growing aircraft leasing business and a fleet of over 130 commercial mid-life aircraft.”
Apollo Aviation was founded in the US by Hoffman and its president, Robert Korn, in 2002. They went on to establish the Irish subsidiary in 2007, basing the firm’s leasing and origination activities out of Dublin.
Robert Korn explained: “With its long history in aircraft leasing, Ireland has developed a deep pool of knowledge, expertise and supporting infrastructure which creates a highly favorable base for Apollo Aviation’s platform. Its political stability and geographic location means Ireland continues to attract new investment while driving value for the companies already located here, reaffirming its position as the leading aviation hub globally.”
Alan Dukes, the former Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications in the Republic of Ireland said: “The aviation sector is incredibly important to the Irish economy contributing just over €4 billion to Ireland’s GDP. Firms like Apollo Aviation that have based their operations here and invested in Ireland for the long-term are highly valuable to the Irish economy. Such firms are responsible in the aggregate for creating thousands of jobs and for generating business opportunities for other companies here in Ireland.”