Aircraft lessor AerCap reported its first quarter 2019 results, including net income of $234.2 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.68 for the quarter.

Net income was 11.7% lower for the first quarter compared to net income of $265.4 million for Q1/2018. It was primarily affected by lower net gain on sale of assets, partially offset by higher lease rents. Sales volume was significantly lower in the first quarter of 2019 than in the first quarter of 2018, resulting in lower net gain on sale of assets. This was partially offset by higher lease rents primarily resulting from the increase in average lease assets.

Diluted earnings per share was affected by the same factors as net income and by the repurchase of 17.0 million shares from January 2018 through March 2019.

Lease revenue for Q1/2019 was $1.162 billion, compared with $1.120 billion for the same period in 2018, primarily due to the delivery of new technology aircraft from January 2018 through March 2019, resulting in a $2.3 billion increase in average lease assets.

Aengus Kelly, CEO of AerCap, commented, “I am pleased to announce another strong quarter for AerCap, with earnings per share of $1.68 and net income of $234.2 million. The foundation of AerCap’s success is our longstanding, deeply ingrained culture of action and discipline. Coupled with our scale and informational advantages, these enable us to produce superior economic results consistently, quarter after quarter and year after year.”

Other highlights from the report included:

• New technology aircraft now comprise over 50% of the company’s owned fleet
• Over $40 billion of contracted future lease revenues
• Average current lease expires in the third quarter of 2026
• 6.2 years average age of owned fleet (1.9 years for new technology aircraft, 10.8 years for current technology aircraft)
• 7.4 years average remaining lease term
• 99.2% fleet utilization rate for the first quarter of 2019
• Aircraft purchases of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019
• $11.1 billion of available liquidity and adjusted debt/equity ratio of 2.8 to 1
• Repurchased 3.1 million shares in the first quarter of 2019 for $137 million