Air Finance - are things looking up?

Ascend's Head of Risk Advisory EMEA, Paul Sheridan, sumarises the mood at the recent Air Finance Conference:

The Dublin Air Finance Conference always serves as a good barometer of where we are in the cycle and this year was no exception.

The more upbeat were trumpeting the record attendances, the banks with money to lend and the number of start up lessors there to explain their business plans.

The less optimistic in the crowd were quick to point out that there was no sign of a bottoming out of airline losses, that banks still didn't have enough money to go around and that most the new lessors still hadn't done a deal.

An even divergence of opinion like that probably means that things probably aren't getting any worse but we shouldn't be ordering the cases of champagne just yet.