Air Lease Corporation Announces Third Quarter 2021 Results

Air Lease Corporation (ALC) (NYSE: AL) announces financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

“Benefiting from an improving airline industry, we had a good quarter, including record high rental revenues, total assets, and lease placements, the lowest composite funding rate in our history, and improved payments from our customers. We clearly see growing demand for new aircraft, especially for single aisle aircraft, and we are back to 2019 levels in terms of proposals being requested by airlines. With our conservative and disciplined business model, we have now profitably placed 67% of our orderbook, despite pandemic challenges, and we remain optimistic in the future of our business and global airline travel,” said John L. Plueger, Chief Executive Officer and President.

“With a long road remaining ahead for the recovery of airline financial performance, the industry is relying on ALC and the leasing sector now more than ever to achieve fleet modernization objectives, to reach environmental sustainability goals, and to meet capital requirements – we see this trend persisting for the foreseeable future. Global air traffic continues to improve, and we believe international volume is poised for strong recovery as travel restrictions are relaxed. As these positive trends continue, I am pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has authorized an increase in our quarterly common stock dividend to $0.185 per share, representing the 9th increase and 36th consecutive dividend payment in ALC’s history,” said Steven F. Udvar-Házy, Executive Chairman of the Board.

Third Quarter 2021 Results

The following table summarizes our operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 (in millions, except per share amounts and percentages):

Financial Highlights

Financial Ratios

Highlights

• Placed a record number of 64 aircraft with lessees, the highest number of aircraft placements in a quarter in ALC history.
• Recorded $520 million of rental revenue during the third quarter, the highest quarterly rental revenue since ALC’s inception.
• Took delivery of 16 aircraft from our orderbook, representing $808 million in aircraft investments. As of September 30, 2021, we owned 370 aircraft in our operating lease portfolio with a net book value of $22.1 billion, a weighted average age of 4.4 years and a weighted average lease term remaining of 7.0 years.
• Placed 96% of our contracted orderbook positions on long-term leases for aircraft delivering through the end of 2023 and have placed 67% of our entire orderbook.
• Ended the quarter with $29.1 billion in committed minimum future rental payments consisting of $14.6 billion in contracted minimum rental payments on the aircraft in our existing fleet and $14.5 billion in minimum future rental payments related to aircraft on order.
• As of November 4, 2021, 54% of the lease deferrals granted have been repaid, representing $138.0 million. This contributed to the 30% increase in our operating cash flow for the nine months ended September 30, 2021.
• Issued $1.1 billion in aggregate principal amount of Medium-Term Notes consisting of $600.0 million of 0.80% Medium-Term Notes due 2024, and $500.0 million of 2.10% Medium-Term Notes due 2028.
• In October 2021, issued 300,000 shares of 4.125% Fixed-Rate Reset Non-Cumulative Perpetual Series C Preferred Stock resulting in approximately $300.0 million in proceeds.
• Increased our quarterly cash dividend by approximately 15.6%, from $0.16 per share to $0.185 per share of our outstanding Class A common stock. The next quarterly dividend of $0.185 per share will be paid on January 5, 2022 to holders of record of our common stock as of December 17, 2021.

Financial Overview

Our total revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2021 increased by 6.3% to $524.5 million compared to the three months ended September 30, 2020. The increase in total revenues is primarily driven by the continued growth in our fleet as well as an increase in our cash collections. During the three months ended September 30, 2021, we recorded $5.4 million in incremental revenue from our lessees on cash basis accounting, primarily due to cash payments received from Vietnam Airlines. During the three months ended September 30, 2020, we were not able to recognize $25.3 million in rental revenue from lessees on a cash basis of accounting because collection was not reasonably assured. In addition, the impact of lease restructurings decreased total revenues by approximately $26.6 million during the three months ended September 30, 2021 as compared to the three months ended September 30, 2020. Our net income available to common stockholders for the three months ended September 30, 2021 was $100.0 million compared to $116.6 million in 2020. Our diluted earnings per share for the three months ended September 30, 2021 was $0.87 compared to $1.02 for the three months ended September 30, 2020. Despite the growth in our fleet and the increase in our cash collections, our net income available to common stockholders and diluted earnings per share decreased due to lower aircraft sales, trading and other revenue during the three months ended September 30, 2021.

Impact of COVID-19 Update

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to our business includes, among other things, the following:

• As of November 4, 2021, we have agreed to accommodations with approximately 64% of our lessees. As of November 4, 2021, 54% of the lease deferrals granted have been repaid, representing $138.0 million. As of November 4, 2021, our total deferrals, net of repayments, was $117.5 million. Our net deferrals represented approximately 1.4% of our total available liquidity as of September 30, 2021. We have also previously entered into some lease restructurings. The impact of these restructurings resulted in a decrease in total revenues of $26.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2021 as compared to the three months ended September 30, 2020.
• Our collection rate⁽¹⁾ for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 was 94% and 89%, respectively. Our collection rate was higher for the three months ended September 30, 2021 because of cash payments received from Vietnam Airlines. Although our collection rate continues to improve, ongoing resurgences of the COVID-19 virus and its variants may continue to have an impact on our collection rate. As discussed above, for those lessees whose revenue we recognize on a cash basis, we recorded $5.4 million in incremental revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2021.
• Our Lease Utilization Rate⁽²⁾ for each of the quarters ended September 30, 2021 and June 30, 2021 was 99.7%.

Our business, results of operations and financial condition may continue to be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and no assurance can be made regarding the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. See “Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 for further discussion on the Impact of COVID-19.

Flight Equipment Portfolio

Our owned fleet grew by 8.5% to a net book value of $22.1 billion as of September 30, 2021 compared to $20.4 billion as of December 31, 2020. As of September 30, 2021, our fleet was comprised of 370 aircraft in our operating lease portfolio, with a weighted-average age and a weighted-average remaining lease term of 4.4 years and 7.0 years, respectively, and 89 managed aircraft. As of September 30, 2021, we had a globally diversified customer base of 115 airlines in 59 countries.

During the quarter ended September 30, 2021, we took delivery of 16 aircraft from our orderbook. Approximately 74% of the net book value of our fleet were leased to flag carriers or airlines that have some form of governmental ownership.

We and airlines around the world have continued to experience delivery delays from Boeing and Airbus and have been impacted by ongoing manufacturer delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, delays related to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, temporary suspension of Boeing 787 deliveries, and pre-pandemic Airbus delays that remain ongoing. These delays and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have also impacted passenger growth and airline profitability and we expect this to continue. As a result of continued manufacturing delays and the impact of COVID-19, our aircraft delivery schedule could continue to be subject to material changes and delivery delays could potentially extend well into 2022 and beyond.

The following table summarizes the key portfolio metrics of our fleet as of September 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020:

The following table details the regional concentration of our flight equipment subject to operating leases:

The following table details the composition of our flight equipment subject to operating leases by aircraft type:

Debt Financing Activities

We ended the third quarter of 2021 with total debt financing, net of discounts and issuance costs, of $17.6 billion, with a debt to equity ratio of 2.68:1 and available liquidity of $8.4 billion. During the three months ended September 30, 2021, we issued $1.1 billion in aggregate principal amount of Medium-Term Notes consisting of $600.0 million at a fixed rate of 0.8% due 2024 and $500.0 million at a fixed rate of 2.1% due 2028.

In September 2021, we executed a commitment increase to our unsecured revolving credit facility, which increased the aggregate facility capacity by an additional $50.0 million, increasing our total revolving commitments to $6.5 billion.

As of the end of the periods presented, our debt portfolio was comprised of the following components (dollars in millions):

Conference Call

In connection with this earnings release, Air Lease Corporation will host a conference call on November 4, 2021 at 4:30 PM Eastern Time to discuss the Company's financial results for the third quarter of 2021.

Investors can participate in the conference call by dialing (855) 308-8321 domestic or (330) 863-3465 international. The passcode for the call is 4987315.

The conference call will also be broadcast live through a link on the Investor Relations page of the Air Lease Corporation website at www.airleasecorp.com. Please visit the website at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download and install any necessary audio software. A replay of the broadcast will be available on the Investor Relations page of the Air Lease Corporation website.

For your convenience, the conference call can be replayed in its entirety beginning at 7:30 PM ET on November 4, 2021 until 7:30 PM ET on November 11, 2021. If you wish to listen to the replay of this conference call, please dial (855) 859-2056 domestic or (404) 537-3406 international and enter passcode 4987315.

About Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL)

Air Lease Corporation is a leading aircraft leasing company based in Los Angeles, California that has airline customers throughout the world. ALC and its team of dedicated and experienced professionals are principally engaged in purchasing commercial aircraft and leasing them to its airline customers worldwide through customized aircraft leasing and financing solutions. ALC routinely posts information that may be important to investors in the “Investors” section of ALC's website at www.airleasecorp.com. Investors and potential investors are encouraged to consult the ALC website regularly for important information about ALC. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, ALC's website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements appear in a number of places in this press release and include statements regarding, among other matters, the state of the airline industry, the impact of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic on us, our lessees and aircraft manufacturers, our anticipated capital expenditures and aircraft sales, our access to the capital markets, aircraft delivery delays and other factors affecting our financial condition or results of operations. Words such as “can,” “could,” “may,” “predicts,” “potential,” “will,” “projects,” “continuing,” “ongoing,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates” and “should,” and variations of these words and similar expressions, are used in many cases to identify these forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results to vary materially from our future results, performance or achievements, or those of our industry, expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others:

• the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to contain its spread ultimately impact our business, results of operation and financial condition;
• our inability to obtain additional capital on favorable terms, or at all, to acquire aircraft, service our debt obligations and refinance maturing debt obligations;
• increases in our cost of borrowing or changes in interest rates;
• our inability to generate sufficient returns on our aircraft investments through strategic acquisition and profitable leasing;
• the failure of an aircraft or engine manufacturers to meet its delivery obligations to us, including or as a result of technical or other difficulties with aircraft before or after delivery;
• obsolescence of, or changes in overall demand for, our aircraft;
• changes in the value of, and lease rates for, our aircraft, including as a result of aircraft oversupply, manufacturer production levels, our lessees’ failure to maintain our aircraft, and other factors outside of our control;
• impaired financial condition and liquidity of our lessees, including due to lessee defaults and reorganizations, bankruptcies or similar proceedings;
• increased competition from other aircraft lessors;
• the failure by our lessees to adequately insure our aircraft or fulfill their contractual indemnity obligations to us;
• increased tariffs and other restrictions on trade;
• changes in the regulatory environment, including changes in tax laws and environmental regulations;
• other events affecting our business or the business of our lessees and aircraft manufacturers or their suppliers that are beyond our or their control, such as the threat or realization of epidemic diseases in addition to COVID-19, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, war or armed hostilities between countries or non-state actors; and
• any additional factors discussed under “Part I — Item 1A. Risk Factors,” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and other SEC filings, including future SEC filings.

The factors noted above and the risks included in our other SEC filings may be increased or intensified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including as a result of ongoing resurgences of the COVID-19 virus and its variants. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately impacts our business, results of operations and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. All forward-looking statements are necessarily only estimates of future results, and there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from expectations. You are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Management and our board of directors use adjusted net income before income taxes, adjusted pre-tax profit margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share before income taxes and adjusted pre-tax return on common equity to assess our consolidated financial and operating performance. Management believes these measures are helpful in evaluating the operating performance of our ongoing operations and identifying trends in our performance, because they remove the effects of certain non-cash items, one-time or non-recurring items that are not expected to continue in the future and certain other items from our operating results. Adjusted net income before income taxes, adjusted pre-tax profit margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share before income taxes and adjusted pre-tax return on common equity, however, should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our operating results or cash flows as reported under GAAP. Adjusted net income before income taxes, adjusted pre-tax profit margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share before income taxes and adjusted pre-tax return on common equity do not reflect our cash expenditures or changes in our cash requirements for our working capital needs. In addition, our calculation of adjusted net income before income taxes, adjusted pre-tax profit margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share before income taxes and adjusted pre-tax return on common equity may differ from the adjusted net income before income taxes, adjusted pre-tax profit margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share before income taxes and adjusted pre-tax return on common equity or analogous calculations of other companies in our industry, limiting their usefulness as a comparative measure.

The following table shows the reconciliation of the numerator for adjusted pre-tax profit margin (in thousands, except percentages):

The following table shows the reconciliation of the numerator for adjusted diluted earnings per share before income taxes (in thousands, except share and per share amounts):

The following table shows the reconciliation of pre-tax return on common equity to adjusted pre-tax return on common equity (in thousands, except percentages):

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