Jetrader - September/October 2011 - 17

We have to run our business being surefooted and leading the business in terms of new initiatives and being responsive to customers.
JT: More and more used aircraft markets are being limited to aircraft with age 15 or younger, and second- and third-tier operators are now having access to new aircraft because they are easier to ﬁnance. What effect do you think will this trend have on residual values? HC: Our experience is that there is still a demand for used aircraft. We’ve been able, at ILFC, to successfully remarket aircraft coming off lease. Air trafﬁc is growing worldwide. There is still more demand for airplanes. And I think there is still more demand than the new aircraft market can satisfy. That’s No. 1. No. 2, there are countries where there is an age limit, like China. Well, let’s see if it sticks. Let’s see if China can afford to maintain that policy and still meet their growth target. If you have to take out all the airplanes that are more than 15 years old and replace them with new aircraft and also satisfy growth, the Chinese airlines are going to be under a lot of pressure… JT: What are your main goals for ILFC over the next 10 years? HC: We’d like to be the most respected and preferred aircraft lessor in the world. We want to be the ﬁrst company that airlines go to because they know that by doing business with ILFC, they’ll have access to a quality portfolio, access to a great team that is very professional and knows how to respond to the needs of the airline, and with an order book that will guarantee availability or offer the availability of products that the airlines themselves cannot acquire. We’re there today. If you want a 787 relatively soon, it needs to come from ILFC, not from Boeing directly, as they are sold out for many years. Similarly, the earliest

available A350 is an ILFC A350. Pretty soon, if you want a neo, you will have to come to ILFC because we will have the best slots in the business. That’s the positioning of the company. In order to get there, we need to be ready for what we don’t see coming, and I keep telling this to my team. As we all know, aviation is prone to global challenges that do not belong to an aviation business plan. So we need to be responsive, to be balanced. We need to be quick so we can respond to various crises and still deliver for our customers and our shareholders. We are demonstrating that we are doing this every day—with very limited impact from the Japanese crisis, very limited impact on ILFC from the Middle East crisis, very limited impact last year from the volcano eruption. We have to run our business being surefooted and leading the business in terms of new initiatives and being responsive to customers. In order to do that, we are moving closer to our customers. I do not believe that the single location with everybody located in Los Angeles is a successful long-term model. We’re building an ofﬁce in Amsterdam. We have an ofﬁce in Ireland. And we’re looking to take additional initiatives of that type. In order to be responsive to your customers, you

have to be there with them; you have to live in their markets, understand their business and be able to appreciate what they have to deal with. Then that will make us a much better and much more responsive company than we ever were. JT: Your recent advertisement campaign in trade magazines seems to be focused on branding the ILFC people rather than the aircraft you offer—what is the thought behind this campaign? HC: I’m really excited about it. Our employees are really excited about it. Our 220 team members are doing a great job. With 939 aircraft and 180 customers, ILFC needs a phenomenal team to be able to make every customer feel special and every issue addressed. ILFC 2.0, as we call it, (the new version of ILFC) is not a one-man show. It is about sustainable performance by the team. It is about combining the motivation and the professionalism of our team with the direction in which we want to take the company. We need it, and that’s why we came up with this advertising campaign. You do business with real people who are going to look at your problems, and you will have a long-lasting relationship with all of them.

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Jetrader - September/October 2011

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