Milestone Aviation tops $1billion leases

Milestone Aviation Group, which is a GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) company and the global leader in helicopter leasing, has reported writing $1 billion in leases and letters of intent in 2016, and says the value of its helicopter fleet has now passed $4 billion.

Nearly a quarter of its fleet is now supporting life-saving missions, following recent successful transactions serving emergency medical services as well as the search and rescue sector.

Daniel Rosenthal, Milestone president and chief executive officer, said: “In a challenging industry environment, we not only grew our business in asset size and leases, but also in scope and strategy through diversifying our portfolio and supporting our customers with expanded financial, productivity and advisory solutions.”

In addition to Milestone’s focus on diversification, service offerings now encompass many of GECAS’ capabilities, such as debt financing, engine leasing, and fleet advisory.

Emergency medical services

In 2016, Milestone wrote 23 leases and letters of intent in the emergency medical services (EMS) sector alone, and another 12 in other parapublic missions.

With newly established customers in Australia, China, Korea, Norway and Western Europe, the helicopter lessor is now supporting EMS missions globally. Milestone sees strong demand for fleet renewal and service growth in the EMS segment and recently placed new orders with Airbus and Leonardo focused on new technology light-twin aircraft to meet this demand.

Milestone also extended debt commitments of more than $400 million in 2016 to support global operators and is offering customers productivity and advisory solutions in addition to lease and debt offerings.

Rosenthal added: “We have great momentum coming out of 2016 and with over $250 million of capital already committed in 2017, we are excited for the year to come. Milestone will continue to draw on the resources of GE to support our customers.”

Increases in offshore wind projects have prompted a partnership with GE’s renewable business, which builds wind turbines, to identify new opportunities for helicopter operators. With the help of GE’s aviation digital team, Milestone clients are also benefiting from digital solutions such as flight operations quality assurance programs.