Zest Airways: As leasing challenges increase, airlines must turn to lessors

Zest Airways chief executive advisor Brian Hogan, speaking at CAPA's Financing the Asian Aviation Revolution conference, stated (07-Sep-2012) with forecast of Ex-Im financing to increase 10-15%, all but the small top tier of carriers will have to turn to lessors. "If you're not the gorilla, invested-rated airline, how will you compete with everyone else? There is only one way forward. It has to be through the leasing community," Mr Hogan said. However, he noted that even turning to lessors will not be enough to overcome additional costs. "If we're paying 10-15% more - our ticket prices aren't going up. They're going down every year," Mr Hogan said.