PARIS (Reuters) – Aircraft leasing giant AerCap’s acquisition of rival GECAS will reduce competition in the aircraft market and spells bad news for airlines, the head of their main global body said on Wednesday.
“We understand that the situation of the leasing companies is difficult,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac told Reuters. “But combining the two to have a big player (in) a very dominant situation is not good news for us.”
The world’s two largest aircraft lessors announced plans last week to combine. Ireland’s AerCap agreed to pay more than $30 billion for GECAS, the air finance business of General Electric.
(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Tim Hepher; Editing by Edmund Blair)
