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Commercial Aviation Industry Outlook Featured on CIT’s Executive Spotlight Series

Dépèche transmise le 16 novembre 2011 par Business Wire

Commercial Aviation Industry Outlook Featured on CIT’s Executive Spotlight Series

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The commercial aviation industry is generally improving as demand for newer, fuel efficient, technologically advanced aircraft will continue to be a key driver of airline growth, says C. Jeffrey Knittel, President of Transportation Finance, CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) cit.com, a global leader in transportation finance. Knittel discusses his outlook for the commercial aviation industry and market trends in Commercial Aviation Industry Outlook (cit.com/aerospacespotlight), the latest in a series of in-depth executive Q&As featured on CIT’s Executive Spotlight series (cit.com/executivespotlight).

“We’ve been impressed with the development of the airline industry in Latin America over the past several years and view the growth opportunities in this market to be promising.”

In discussing his 2012 outlook for the commercial aviation industry, Knittel comments, “So far, the European sovereign debt crisis does not appear to be significantly affecting overall passenger traffic in Europe, although we’ve heard of some weakness in internal traffic of the most affected countries. We expect this to remain the same in 2012…. And while the industry will continue to be influenced by market-driven events, it will manage through these inflection points as it has in the past.”

Emerging markets, like Latin America, continue to provide opportunity for growth in the commercial aviation industry, Knittel adds, “We’ve been impressed with the development of the airline industry in Latin America over the past several years and view the growth opportunities in this market to be promising.”

Additionally, Knittel anticipates continued evolution of the Low Cost Carrier (LCC) model, “We think the LCC model will continue to evolve into a more ancillary revenue model…. With lots of short haul passengers, airlines can sell an array of unbundled services to a much larger pool of potential passengers than long haul operators. Similar to full service carriers, the sector will always be looking for ways to conserve capital, and this really is where lessors bring real value to airlines.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Individuals can download a free copy of CIT Aerospace’s 2011 Global Aerospace Outlook: Challenges of an Ever-Changing Industry at cit.com/aerospaceoutlook.

Individuals interested in receiving future updates on CIT via e-mail can register at http://newsalerts.cit.com.

About CIT Aerospace
CIT Aerospace provides financing solutions to a broad spectrum of the global aerospace value chain, ranging from operators of commercial and business aircraft to manufacturers and suppliers in the aerospace and defense industries, as well as financial institutions. CIT owns or finances a fleet of approximately 300 commercial aircraft. cit.com/aerospace

About CIT
Founded in 1908, CIT (NYSE: CIT) is a bank holding company with more than $34 billion in financing and leasing assets. A member of the Fortune 500, it provides financing and leasing capital to its more than one million small business and middle market clients and their customers across more than 30 industries. CIT maintains leadership positions in small business and middle market lending, factoring, retail finance, aerospace, equipment and rail leasing, and global vendor finance. cit.com

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