In this interview, James Meyler, Chief Executive Officer, ORIX Aviation, speaks to Joe O’Mara, Head of Aviation Finance at KPMG Ireland, in Dublin in mid-November 2023.

ORIX Aviation is a global operating lessor and is a subsidiary of ORIX, one of Japan’s largest financial institutions. ORIX Aviation has a fleet of around 210 aircraft worth around $8 billion and have a 30% stake in Avalon. The company has executed over 190 aircraft transactions valued in excess of $43 billion in the full year of 2023. Meyler has been at the head of the company since 2018 and has helped oversee the company’s successful $5 billion worth of aircraft sold to over 80 Japanese Operating Lease investors in the last five years.

Meyler shares his thoughts on customer performance over the course of 2023 and issues facing the industry as it contends with a post-Covid world. As supply chain manufacturing issues continue, Meyler gives his opinion on the state of the supply chain and order book delivery stream.

This discussion is the seventh to be released in the 2024 series of Aviation Leaders interviews that will be published between now and January 29, 2023 when the full report will be published at the opening of the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dublin 2024 conference week.