The unexpected resignation of Mike Poon Ho Man, the former chief executive officer of China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Limited (CALC), has led to various press outlets around the world devoting countless column inches to speculate on the reasons behind his departure. But that’s all it can be at the moment, speculation. CALC has confirmed to Airline Economics that it has no knowledge whatsoever on the reasons behind Poon’s resignation on June 17.
Jens Dunker, Senior Vice President – Aircraft Trading and Global Marketing of CALC, and Christian McCormick, the ex-CEO of Natixis Transport Finance, who has recently taken over as the new Managing Director – Finance at CALC, speak exclusively toAirline Economics to set the record straight on recent press reports concerning its new CEO, its hiring activities as well as detailing its international expansion ambitions. The in-depth profile also goes into detail on its financing strategy and longer-term plans.
The lessor is moving ahead at speed with its expansion plans, which includes hiring more international staff at all levels in the company (see Asia-Pacific People News section below), and is working on securing more international clients. Last week CALC delivered a second A320 to Air India, which was funded using an ECA-backed loan (see Asia-Pacific Finance News section below).
“We closed and delivered a second aircraft to Air India under the ECA programme on July 9,” says McCormick. “The ECAs have re-vetted CALC since the change in management and their approval of this latest deal demonstrates to the market that they have conducted the appropriate due diligence, and even with all of this “news”, they have determined to support CALC for this and further deliveries.”
For more insights into CALC’s expansion plans and reactions to recent news reports, read the full article in the forthcoming issue of Airline Economics. Sign up to receive it here.