Irish lessor Avolon has agreed to sell a 33-aircraft portfolio to Qatar’s Lesha Bank in a deal valued at about $1.609 billion, AeroTime reported on September 29, 2026, citing a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing by Avolon’s owner Bohai Leasing and parallel statements from both companies. The sale and purchase agreement was signed on September 28, 2026, with LAC Leasing Ireland 1, a Lesha Bank vehicle created for the transaction. Aircraft are currently on lease to 25 airlines worldwide, and deliveries are expected to be completed by March 31, 2027.
The portfolio mix is deliberately broad. Bohai’s filing describes twenty-two narrowbodies—including eight Airbus A320s, three A321s, eight Boeing 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s, plus a single A320neo-family jet—nine widebodies made up of five A330s, one A330neo and three A350s, and two Embraer ERJ190 regional aircraft. That spread gives Lesha Bank exposure across the main liquid commercial types rather than a single-family concentration, which matters for residual-value and redeployment options if any lessee returns metal early.
Both sides framed the trade as portfolio management rather than distress. Avolon CEO Andy Cronin said aircraft trading is a core strategy that lets the lessor realize value and recycle capital while keeping a youthful leased fleet. Lesha Bank Group CEO Mohammed Ismail Al Emadi said the acquisition fits a disciplined build-out of Sharia-compliant aviation leasing through Lesha Aviation Services, targeting stable, diversified returns from established lessees and a modern technology mix. The $1.609 billion figure is the portfolio valuation in the Bohai filing; the companies noted the final selling price remains subject to negotiation around each delivery.
Timing is staged. Payment for each aircraft moves when that airframe delivers into the Lesha structure, with the full set targeted by the end of March 2027. For airlines already flying the jets, day-to-day operations should be unchanged: lessor novations of this kind typically keep leases in place and simply shift ownership and asset management. For lessors watching the secondary market, a $1.6 billion package changing hands in late September is another data point that institutional capital is still chasing in-production and near-in-production metal with contracted cash flows.
The deal also sits inside a wider 2026 pattern of lessors pruning older or less strategic assets while Gulf and Asian financial buyers scale aviation books. Avolon’s Bohai parent explicitly linked the sale to optimizing asset structure and supporting near-term profit. Lesha Bank, for its part, gains scale in one step instead of assembling thirty-three bilateral purchases. Neither side published a full lessee list in the materials reviewed for this article, so airline-by-airline impact remains opaque until individual novation notices appear.
What is firm today is the headline: thirty-three aircraft, roughly $1.6 billion, signed September 28, deliveries through March 31, 2027, spanning MAX and A320-family narrowbodies, A330/A350 widebodies and two ERJ190s, moving from Avolon to a Lesha Bank leasing vehicle.
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