Air Lease Q3 Earnings & Revenues Top Estimates, Improve Year Over Year

Air Lease Corporation (AL) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $1.29, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.60. However, the bottom line improved 3.2% year over year owing to an increase in AL’s total rental of flight equipment revenue, partially offset by lower sales activity and higher interest expense.

Total revenues of $725.4 million missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $737.3 million but grew 5.1% year over year.

Air Lease Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Air Lease Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Air Lease Corporation Quote

On Sept. 2, 2025, Air Lease announced that it had signed a definitive agreement, wherein it is set to be purchased by a Dublin, Ireland-based new holding company. Shares of the new holding company are held by Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Aviation Capital Limited, and investment vehicles affiliated with Apollo managed funds (Apollo) and Brookfield.

Per the aforesaid merger agreement, Air Lease shareholders should receive $65 per share of Class A common stock in cash at the closure of the deal. This reflects a total value of almost $7.4 billion, or $28.2 billion including debt obligations to be assumed or refinanced net of cash.

Subject to customary closing conditions, which include approval by Air Lease’s Class A common shareholders and receipt of certain regulatory approvals, the deal is anticipated to be completed in the first half of 2026. However, the deal is not subject to any financing contingency.

AL’s board of directors has already ratified the agreement. Air Lease’s directors and certain executive officers have agreed to vote (the shares of Class A common stock held by them) in favor of the transaction.

Other Statistics

Revenues from the rental of flight equipment grew 9% year over year to $681 million. The uptick was owing to the continued growth of AL’s fleet and an increase in the company’s portfolio lease yield. During the third quarter of 2025, AL witnessed almost $20 million from lease revenues.

Revenues from aircraft sales, trading activity and other sources fell 32% from the year-ago quarter to $44 million, owing to lower sales activity. AL witnessed $35 million in gains from the sale of five aircraft during the third quarter.

Operating expenses rose 7.3% year over year to $600.9 million.

As of Sept. 30, 2025, Air Lease owned 503 aircraft with a net book value of $29.5 billion. The total fleet size at the third-quarter end was 781 (including the owned fleet of 503, 50 managed fleet and 228 aircraft on order).

Air Lease exited the third quarter with $452.21 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $454.80 million at the prior-quarter end. Debt financing, net of discount and issuance costs, amounted to $20.2 billion at the third-quarter end compared with $20.3 billion at the prior-quarter end.

Currently, Air Lease carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q3 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines DAL reported third-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 46 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.71 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.52. Earnings increased 14% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the September-end quarter were $16.67 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.79 billion and increasing 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Due to improving air-travel demand, adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) increased 4.1% year over year to $15.2 billion. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings of $1.76 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.47 and improved 18.1% year over year.

Total operating revenues of $3.05 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.02 billion and were down 0.5% year over year. JBHT’s third-quarter revenue performance was hurt by a 1% and 4% decline in gross revenue per load in Intermodal (JBI) and Truckload (JBT), respectively, a decrease in load volume of 8% and 1% in Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) and Dedicated Contract Services (DCS), and 8% fewer stops in Final Mile Services (FMS). These items were partially offset by a 3 % improvement in DCS productivity, a 9% increase in revenue per load in ICS and 14% load growth in JBT. Total operating revenue, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, fell less than 1% year over year.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) reported mixed third-quarter 2025 results wherein the company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but revenues missed the same.

UAL's third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) (excluding 12 cents from non-recurring items) of $2.78 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.64 but declined 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure lies above the guided range of $2.25 and $2.75.

Operating revenues of $15.2 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.3 billion but increased 2.6% year over year. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 90.7% of the top line) increased 1.9% year over year to $13.8 billion. UAL flights transported 48,382 passengers in the third quarter, up 6.2% year over year.

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