Record airline fleet order backlog has winners & losers - and questions about how it will be funded

The world's aviation sector ended 2013 with another record backlog for aircraft orders, as the highest ever number of annual orders added to what was already a record backlog. The number of outstanding orders is equivalent to almost half of the fleet in service. In this report, we examine aggregate orders data from the CAPA Fleet Database to highlight trends regarding the winners and losers by region, business model and aircraft category.

For a low margin industry, the challenge of financing all these orders remains significant. For decades, annual capital expenditure has almost always exceeded operating cash flow generated by the world's airlines. The industry has had to rely on ever more imaginative forms of external financing, demonstrating that, historically, this is a challenge to which they have risen.

These themes will feature in the CAPA Airline Fleet & Finance Summit, which will take place in Singapore from 25-Mar-2014 to 26-Mar-2014.