New study finds airlines face a decreasing marginal return to leasing on their profit margin

The leasing business has seen remarkable growth over the last 20 years and has fundamentally changed the business of air transport. It was long thought that the performance of an airline company was proportional to the lease level of its fleet. But a new study by Toulouse Business School suggests that there is an optimal level of leasing beyond which profitability is reduced. Sylvain Bourjade, Professor of Corporate Finance and Catherine Muller-Vibes, Professor of Industrial Organization, both researchers at Toulouse Business School, along with Régis Huc, an air transport specialist, examined the impact of aircraft leasing choices on airlines’ financial