Full Video: Air Lease Executive Chairman Udvar-Házy at Skift Aviation Forum 2022

25.08.2023 - 14:30 / skift.com / Robert Isom / Edward Russell / Rashaad Jorden / Steven Udvar-Hazy

Steven Udvar-Házy, the co-founder and executive chairman of lessor Air Lease Corporation, believes the airline industry will likely see more consolidation, especially in Europe. Udvar-Házy said at the recent Skift Aviation Forum in Dallas that while he doubts the continent’s low-cost carriers will be involved in any mergers, he sees Italy’s ITA and TAP Air Portugal as takeover targets.  

Udvar-Hazy also touched on how airlines are coping with surging travel demand, challenges in delivering aircraft on time as well as the state of the growing electric air taxi market.

Watch Udvar-Hazy’s full on-stage interview with Airline Weekly editor Edward Russell, as well as read a transcript of it, below.

Edward Russell: Good, almost afternoon everybody. Happy to be back on stage. Before I kick off with my guests, Mr. Steven Udvar-Hazy, who almost needs no introduction, I just want to say if you have any questions, please submit them in the app or online and we’ll be able to see them up here in the last five minutes of the session. But as I said, I am here with Mr. Steven Udvar-Hazy, Executive Chairman of Air Lease Corp, widely known, accredited as the father of the modern leasing industry, who famously started out of his car in Santa Monica in the 1970s. Welcome to the stage.

Steven Udvar-Házy: Thank you very much, Ed.

Russell: Well, Mr. Hazy, in your work at Air Lease, you talk to airlines around the world, you get a lot of different perspectives. We had American Airlines CEO Robert Isom up here earlier talking about demands remaining robust despite the concerns. What are you hearing from airlines right now? How do things look?

Udvar-Házy: Well, I think we have about 140 airlines that lease jet aircraft from us on all continents. We’re in 85 countries, so I can second what Robert said. I think the airlines grossly underestimated the resurgence and demand as the pandemic died out in the early part of this year. Most airlines were not equipped in terms of infrastructure, labor, pilots, ground agents, maintenance facilities to cope with this tremendous increase in demand. So we saw big gaps in the ability of airlines of recover and get back to some level of normalcy. Some have done better than others. But the U.S. … obviously we have a lot of media attention to the issues and flight cancellations and (air traffic control) problems. Now of course, we have labor flexing their muscles as airlines are making profits. They want to recover what they’ve given up in the last three, four years. So it’s normal human behavior.

Russell: Absolutely. I think there was a lot of press recently about Delta pilots and how it could disrupt holiday travel though the process takes more than just a strike vote. So it’s a negotiating