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Air Lease Q1 Earnings & Revenues Top Estimates, Improve Y/Y
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Air Lease Corporation’s (AL - Free Report) reported solid first-quarter 2025 results, wherein both earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.51 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.24 and improved 15.3% year over year. The upside was owing to an increase in AL’s rental revenues and aircraft sales, trading and other revenue, partially offset by higher interest expense, driven by the increase in AL’s composite cost of funds.
Total revenues of $738.3 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $710.8 million and grew 11.3% year over year.
John L. Plueger, AL’s chief executive officer and president, stated, “AL had a strong quarter with fleet expansion, healthy sales gains, significant insurance settlements related to our aircraft in Russia, and achieving our target debt to equity ratio which now allows us to consider all capital allocation opportunities. To date, we have no aircraft delivering to any country that has announced reciprocal tariffs applicable to aircraft. We continue to benefit from robust global aircraft demand in both leasing and aircraft trading as significant aircraft supply constraints persist.”
Air Lease Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Revenues from the rental of flight equipment grew 5% year over year to $645 million. The uptick was owing to continued growth of AL’s fleet, partially offset by a decrease in end-of-lease revenue of approximately $12.7 million.
Revenues from aircraft sales, trading activity and other sources grew 90% from the year-ago quarter to $93 million, owing to an increase in sales activity. AL witnessed $61 million in gains from the sale of 16 aircraft in the first quarter of 2025.
Operating expenses rose 13.4% year over year to $598.6 million.
As of March 31, 2025, Air Lease owned 487 aircraft with a net book value of $28.6 billion. The total fleet size at the first-quarter end was 804 (including the owned fleet of 487, 57 managed fleet and 260 aircraft on order).
Air Lease exited the first quarter with $456.62 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $472.55 million at the prior-quarter end. Debt financing, net of discount and issuance costs, amounted to $19.8 billion at the first-quarter end compared with $20.2 billion at the prior-quarter end.
We note that another player from the broader Zacks Transportation sector, GXO Logistics (GXO - Free Report) , will report its first-quarter earnings numbers tomorrow. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)
GXO Logistics, a pure-play contract logistics provider, is headquartered in Greenwich, CT. GXO currently has an Earnings ESP of +1.18% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The company is slated to report first-quarter 2025 results on May 7.
Increased e-commerce, automation and outsourcing are likely to aid the company’s results. Cost-cutting efforts are also likely to have boosted the bottom-line performance of GXO. The company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters, matched estimates once and missed once, with the average beat being 1.04%.
Q1 Performances of Other Transportation Companies
United Airlines
United Airlines’ (UAL - Free Report) first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding 25 cents from non-recurring items) of 91 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents. In the year-ago quarter, the Chicago-based airline reported a loss of 15 cents per share.
Operating revenues of $13.21 billion fell marginally short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.22 billion. The top line increased 5.4% year over year despite the tariff-induced slowdown in domestic air travel demand. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 89.7% of the top line) rose 4.8% to $11.9 billion. UAL flights transported 40,806 passengers in the first quarter, up 3.8% year over year.
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines(DAL - Free Report) reported first-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 9 cents from non-recurring items) of 46 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 40 cents. Earnings increased 2.2% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.
Revenues in the March-end quarter were $14.04 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.81 billion and increasing 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) rose 3.3% year over year to $13 billion.
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Air Lease Q1 Earnings & Revenues Top Estimates, Improve Y/Y
Air Lease Corporation’s (AL - Free Report) reported solid first-quarter 2025 results, wherein both earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.51 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.24 and improved 15.3% year over year. The upside was owing to an increase in AL’s rental revenues and aircraft sales, trading and other revenue, partially offset by higher interest expense, driven by the increase in AL’s composite cost of funds.
Total revenues of $738.3 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $710.8 million and grew 11.3% year over year.
John L. Plueger, AL’s chief executive officer and president, stated, “AL had a strong quarter with fleet expansion, healthy sales gains, significant insurance settlements related to our aircraft in Russia, and achieving our target debt to equity ratio which now allows us to consider all capital allocation opportunities. To date, we have no aircraft delivering to any country that has announced reciprocal tariffs applicable to aircraft. We continue to benefit from robust global aircraft demand in both leasing and aircraft trading as significant aircraft supply constraints persist.”
Air Lease Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Air Lease Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Air Lease Corporation Quote
Other Statistics
Revenues from the rental of flight equipment grew 5% year over year to $645 million. The uptick was owing to continued growth of AL’s fleet, partially offset by a decrease in end-of-lease revenue of approximately $12.7 million.
Revenues from aircraft sales, trading activity and other sources grew 90% from the year-ago quarter to $93 million, owing to an increase in sales activity. AL witnessed $61 million in gains from the sale of 16 aircraft in the first quarter of 2025.
Operating expenses rose 13.4% year over year to $598.6 million.
As of March 31, 2025, Air Lease owned 487 aircraft with a net book value of $28.6 billion. The total fleet size at the first-quarter end was 804 (including the owned fleet of 487, 57 managed fleet and 260 aircraft on order).
Air Lease exited the first quarter with $456.62 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $472.55 million at the prior-quarter end. Debt financing, net of discount and issuance costs, amounted to $19.8 billion at the first-quarter end compared with $20.2 billion at the prior-quarter end.
AL’s Zacks Rank
Currently, Air Lease carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
We note that another player from the broader Zacks Transportation sector, GXO Logistics (GXO - Free Report) , will report its first-quarter earnings numbers tomorrow. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)
GXO Logistics, a pure-play contract logistics provider, is headquartered in Greenwich, CT. GXO currently has an Earnings ESP of +1.18% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The company is slated to report first-quarter 2025 results on May 7.
Increased e-commerce, automation and outsourcing are likely to aid the company’s results. Cost-cutting efforts are also likely to have boosted the bottom-line performance of GXO. The company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters, matched estimates once and missed once, with the average beat being 1.04%.
Q1 Performances of Other Transportation Companies
United Airlines
United Airlines’ (UAL - Free Report) first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding 25 cents from non-recurring items) of 91 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents. In the year-ago quarter, the Chicago-based airline reported a loss of 15 cents per share.
Operating revenues of $13.21 billion fell marginally short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.22 billion. The top line increased 5.4% year over year despite the tariff-induced slowdown in domestic air travel demand. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 89.7% of the top line) rose 4.8% to $11.9 billion. UAL flights transported 40,806 passengers in the first quarter, up 3.8% year over year.
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines(DAL - Free Report) reported first-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 9 cents from non-recurring items) of 46 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 40 cents. Earnings increased 2.2% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.
Revenues in the March-end quarter were $14.04 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.81 billion and increasing 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) rose 3.3% year over year to $13 billion.