Organizers Say That Reflects Investor Interest In Air
Transport
Commercial aviation continues to demonstrate its sustained
ability to attract investors as evidenced by record attendance at
the 28th annual conference of the International Society of
Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) that held this week.
ISTAT is a nearly 30-year-old, not-for-profit organization with
more than 2,000 members worldwide. It serves aircraft operators,
investors, manufacturers, leasing companies, appraisers and other
supporting businesses and is dedicated to fostering and promoting
interest and educational opportunities in commercial aviation. In
recent years, ISTAT and its annual events have grown in popularity
to become the leading forum for its sector of the aviation
industry. At the conference start, more than 1,300 participants
from 28 countries were on hand for the two day conference, held at
the Westin Keirland Resort.
Current ISTAT President and President of AVITAS, John Vitale,
commented that "This year's numbers show more than a 10 percent
increase over last year's event, held in Orlando. We hit the
1,000 mark back in 2007 and it has continued to grow since
then."
ISTAT's growth is no coincidence, as much of the business of
commercial aviation was able to weather the recent economic
disruption due to the quality of aircraft investments. "Compared to
other asset classes, commercial aircraft have outpaced other
investment opportunities due to an aircraft's long useful life and
their extremely mobile nature," said Joseph Ozimek, ISTAT incoming
president and an executive at Boeing Capital Corporation, the
aircraft builder's product financing and leasing unit. "The
financiers' ability to redeploy aircraft assets in the event of an
operator's default or just normal lease turnover gives investors
confidence not found with other assets," Ozimek added.
For decades, global aviation interests have exchanged
information and conducted business at major event venues like the
Paris and Farnborough Air Shows. Increasingly ISTAT's annual spring
conference has grown to fill the need for a major U.S.-based venue
for the global aviation industry with a business importance on par
with the major air shows.
The 2011 ISTAT line up of industry luminaries for the first
meeting day, focusing on aircraft manufacturing, included keynote
speaker and U.S. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, Airbus Vice
President of Marketing Andy Shankland, President and CEO James
Albaugh of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, President Gary Scott of
Bombardier of Canada and Executive Vice President Paulo Silva of
Embraer of Brazil.
Day two focused on the state of aircraft engines, financing and
leasing, with headline speakers including President Todd Kallman of
Pratt & Whitney, President and CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga of CFM
International, President and CEO Steven F. Udvar-Hazy of ALC among
others.
ISTAT is distinguished among other leading industry forums by
its non-profit nature. The society's events come together by the
efforts of member volunteers motivated by supporting the industry's
broader growth and the numerous charitable interests ISTAT support
with society profits. "ISTAT's meetings, whether the spring annual
meeting and the European conference in the fall, aim to foster an
industry dialog that nurtures the industry as a whole," said Doug
Runte, an ISTAT board member and managing director at Piper
Jaffray. "We come with our individual perspectives, but we
collectively focus our energies on improving the lot of commercial
aviation overall."
Among ISTAT's interests is support for and development of
standards for the global aircraft appraisal industry. The society
sponsors the ISTAT Certified Appraiser program, of which there are
nearly 50 members worldwide.