Apollo Aviation Group Acquires 59 Aircraft in 2017

Apollo Aviation Group (together with its affiliates, “Apollo Aviation”), a multi-strategy aviation investment manager, today announced multiple milestones achieved during 2017.

During the year, the firm contracted to purchase 59 aircraft for a total gross purchase price of $965 million, bringing its total fleet to 181 aircraft operated by 81 lessees across 49 countries.

The acquired aircraft are comprised of narrowbody and widebody aircraft from the A319, A320, A321, A330, B737 and B777 families. The majority of the acquisitions were acquired with leases attached to airlines based in Asia-Pacific, South and Central America, North America and Europe. Aircraft were also purchased without leases attached, with the view of transitioning to new operators or to service the existing leased portfolio.

The year was also marked by the closing of the AASET 2017-1 transaction in July. This was Apollo Aviation’s fourth ABS capital markets transaction. Robert Korn, Apollo Aviation’s President explained, “2017 represents another important year in the history of Apollo Aviation. In addition to celebrating our 15th anniversary and engaging in substantial investment activity, we completed our fourth capital markets transaction, demonstrating our credibility as a servicer within the market. The experience of our management platform, combined with our ability to consistently find attractive financing solutions, provides the company with a strong competitive advantage as we enter 2018.”

The firm also invested heavily in personnel and infrastructure during the year, employing 75 professionals at year end. Bill Hoffman, Chairman of Apollo Aviation, added, “We are proud of the team we’ve assembled and look forward to continuing to grow the infrastructure to support our increasing fleet size and pipeline.”