AerCap still sees good demand for most popular wide-body jets

[May 09, 2017]  PARIS (Reuters) - The world's largest independent aircraft leasing company, AerCap, sought on Tuesday to dampen concerns over recent U.S. publicity about weak demand for wide-body jets, saying there was "good solid demand" for the most widely traded types.

 Aengus Kelly, CEO and Executive Director of AerCap, speaks at the 2016 International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit in Dublin, Ireland June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

A number of major U.S. airlines have announced plans to defer deliveries of long-haul passenger planes, amid reports of a looming glut of capacity of such aircraft as planemakers bring out various new models while still upgrading old ones.

AerCap Chief Executive Aengus Kelly said, after the company reported higher quarterly earnings, that such discussions were typical across the world.

He added that planemakers were prepared to absorb market disruption by building a spare buffer into their order books.

He also told reporters AerCap was studying a proposed larger new version of Boeing's 737 single-aisle jet family, which industry sources expect to be launched in June.

AerCap has some, mainly single-aisle Airbus aircraft at Italy's Alitalia, which has gone into administration, but these represent below one percent of AerCap's portfolio, he added.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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