Airlines have enjoyed a sustained period of profitability over the past 12 months driven by “revenge” travel demand and pressures on capacity bumping up yields. Leasing companies are also benefitting from the capacity shortage with lease extensions up to 70-90 per cent and higher lease rates, as well as record gains on sales. Higher interest rates have tightened pricing for financing for the smaller companies and lesser credits, while manufacturers are grappling to increase production despite ongoing supply chain issues and entry-into-service and manufacturing defects grounding aircraft around the world.

In this environment, and for the sixth year running, Airline Economics and KPMG have kicked off their global “state of the market” review of the aviation industry with interviews with aviation market leaders held around the world. In 30-plus interviews, these high-flying executives unpack their experiences from the past 12 months and cast their visionary gaze into the short- and long-term horizons of the industry's future.

Ahead of the publication of the completed Aviation Global Leaders Report 2024 in tandem with the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers conference in Dublin in January 2023, Airline Economics and KPMG are releasing a series of video interviews with industry experts that were conducted between October to end November 2023.

In this interview, Peter Barrett, Chief Executive Officer, SMBC Aviation Capital speaks to Joe O’Mara, Partner and Head of Aviation Finance at KPMG Ireland, in Dublin in late November 2023.

In the interview Peter Barrett discusses the performance of the airlines over the past 12 months, and takes an optimistic look ahead to the coming year noting a return to more familiar challenges facing the industry including higher interest rates, inflationary pressures and the ongoing pressure on capacity caused by lingering OEM supply chain issues.

This discussion is the first 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.