How Big Is Ireland's Aircraft Leasing Industry?
Quick answer
Irish aircraft leasing companies booked €27.6 billion of income and held €252.6 billion of assets in 2025, while employing about 3,100 people.
The Central Statistics Office publishes nine tables on aircraft leasing companies in Ireland. They are industry aggregates: the CSO cannot disclose individual lessors, so none of these figures can be traced to a named company.
Income and profit
Income of aircraft leasing companies in Ireland was €27.6 billion in 2025, up from €24.3 billion in 2024 and €12.4 billion in 2013 (CSO table ALIA03). Expenditure was €22.8 billion and profits €4.8 billion in 2025.
The bulk of income is operating lease income, which is what lessors earn renting aircraft to airlines: €22.6 billion of the 2025 total (ALIA04).
Assets and liabilities
Total assets were €252.6 billion in 2025, down from a peak of €270.4 billion in 2024 but more than double the €121.3 billion recorded in 2013 (ALIA06). Most of that is tangible fixed assets, which at €183.5 billion are essentially the aircraft themselves.
On the liabilities side, loans were €122.3 billion and bonds and notes €39.1 billion (ALIA07). Bonds and notes have nearly tripled since 2019, when they were €14.2 billion.
Employment and pay
The industry employed 3,096 people in 2025, up from 2,914 in 2019 (ALIA01). Mean annual earnings per person rose from €204,626 in 2024 to €249,316 in 2025. Median weekly pay was €2,434, well below the mean weekly pay of €5,193, which tells you a small number of very high earners lift the average.
Which countries pay for Irish-leased aircraft
The CSO also splits operating lease income by the country of the lessee, the airline customer (ALIA09). In 2025 the largest were the United States (€2.1 billion), China (€1.7 billion), India (€1.7 billion), Ireland (€1.5 billion) and France (€1.0 billion), out of €22.6 billion in total.
This measures where the customer is based, not where aircraft fly. For where Irish flights actually go, see the destination pages.
Caveats
CSO figures for the latest year are provisional and are revised. These are national aggregates for companies the CSO classifies as aircraft lessors, so they will not match any single company’s published accounts. Confirm specifics against an industry report before relying on any single number.