Founding CEO of Avolon, Dómhnal Slattery, has announced he will be stepping down from the role having served for 12 years since the company’s formation.
Avolon’s Board has unanimously appointed Andy Cronin, Avolon’s President & Chief Financial Officer (CFO), to the role of CEO Designate. In addition, Paul Geaney, Avolon’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) is appointed to the role of President & CCO with immediate effect.
Dómhnal Slattery has overseen the growth of the business from the largest private equity backed start-up globally in 2010 to a top aircraft lessor with a balance sheet in excess of US$30 billion. Having served for 12 years and built a business with a market leading team and franchise, he has elected to step down from his executive role and will now pursue a range of other interests in a non-executive capacity. Dómhnal will work closely with new CEO Andy Cronin over the coming months, to ensure an effective transition of leadership.
Andy Cronin has held an array of senior roles across the sector for more than 20 years. As part of the founding team, and serving as Avolon’s CFO for the past 12 years, he has played a central role as CFO and member of the Executive Committee in building the company. In addition to his CFO role, he has served as President of Avolon since July 2021.
Dómhnal Slattery, Avolon CEO, commented: “We have built Avolon from a start-up 12 years ago to become a global industry leader. It has been a privilege to lead the business and serve as its CEO since foundation. Avolon is incredibly fortunate to have an individual of Andy Cronin’s calibre to lead it on the next stage of its journey.
Our ambition was to build a global leader with a team which would be recognised as the industry’s best. We have achieved that and I would like to thank our TRIBE – both past and present – and all of our industry partners and stakeholders for their commitment to realising the vision we had in 2010. The legacy of any CEO is the team they build. I am proud to step away from Avolon, leaving the business in a strong financial and competitive position, and in the hands of a leadership team which I know will continue to excel.”
Andy Cronin, CEO Designate, commented: “Avolon is a truly great business with an incredibly talented and motivated team. I look forward to leading the company through our next phase of development and building on the success of the past 12 years as we continue to innovate, evolve and grow.
“Dómhnal has led Avolon to become an industry leading business and made an outstanding contribution to the global aviation industry during a career spanning over 30 years. On behalf of everyone at Avolon, I would like to thank him for his commitment to the business as we have navigated our course to becoming an industry leader.”
Avolon has also announced its latest results, with net income (excluding Russia) for the three months to 30 June at $6 million, compared to $64 million in Q2 2021, and $86 million for the six months to 30 June 2022, compared to a loss of £20 million in the six months to end June 2021.
Avolon recognised $539 million of lease revenue and generated $305 million of net cash from operating activities in the quarter, compared to $610 million lease revenue and $195 million operating cashflow in the six months to end June 2021.
Avolon ended the quarter with total available liquidity and contracted sales of approximately $6.7 billion, including $4.9bn of undrawn debt facilities. The lessor has over $16bn of unencumbered assets and net leverage of 2.4x.
During the reporting period, Fitch re-affirmed Avolon’s credit rating at BBB- with Stable outlook, and the company extended the maturity date of its secured recourse revolving credit facility from 2024 to 2027, and from 15 July, increased the facility size to $745 million.
During the second quarter, Avolon executed a total of 54 lease transactions comprising new aircraft leases, follow-on leases and lease extensions, as well as entering into Letters of Intent for the sale and leaseback of 13 aircraft and the placement of 31 aircraft from Avolon’s orderbook. The lessor sold two owned aircraft and entered into binding sale agreements for the sale of 30 owned aircraft.
Avolon has an owned and managed fleet of 591 aircraft, with total orders and commitments for 260 new technology aircraft. The average age of its owned fleet is 6.2 years with an average remaining lease term of 6.7 years. Avolon ended the quarter with a total of 146 airline customers operating in 62 countries.
Andy Cronin, CEO Designate, commented: “Demand for air travel globally has continued to recover strongly and that recovery is evident in the improving financial health of airlines. The rebound in demand has been met with operational challenges within airlines and at airports but we are seeing broad-based demand for new and used aircraft as passengers want to return to the skies.
This market backdrop, together with our strong liquidity, attractive orderbook of new technology aircraft, global scale and multi-cycle experience underpins our confidence in the medium-term outlook for our business and the wider industry.”