Aircraft leasing giant AerCap paid its chief executive Aengus Kelly €4.7 million last year, company accounts show.
The Irish-headquartered multinational, which buys and leases aircraft to airlines, said this week it earned profits of $671 million (€644.3 million) last year.
AerCap paid Mr Kelly $4.9 million (€4.7 million) in salary and other benefits, according to figures filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in New York, where the company’s shares are traded.
The accounts state that Mr Kelly’s base salary was $900,000 while his bonus was $3 million. A pension contribution of $200,000 and other benefits made up the balance, the filings state.
Collectively, Mr Kelly and his colleagues, Peter Juhas, chief financial officer, and Peter Anderson, chief commercial officer, earned $11.9 million in salary, bonuses and benefits from AerCap in 2024.
This marked an increase on 2023, when AerCap paid the trio $9.3 million.
The filings state that Mr Kelly is the company’s only executive director.
AerCap noted that its executive pay policies aim to attract and keep talent.
It ties bonuses to targets set by the board’s nomination and compensation committee.
The group pays its chairman Paul T Dacier €200,000 a-year and non-executive directors €95,000 each, along with €4,000 for each meeting they attend in person, and €1,000 for any meeting they attend by phone.
AerCap returned $1.6 billion to investors last year when it bought 16.8 million of the shares they held in the company.
It plans to return $1 billion through another such share purchase scheme this year and intends to increase dividend payments to shareholders.
The company boosted revenues by 5 per cent in 2024 to almost $8 billion from $7.6 billion the previous year.
AerCap combines its own cash with borrowings to buy commercial aircraft and engines from manufacturers, which it then leases to airlines, earning revenue from the rent paid.
The Irish business is the biggest player in its industry. At the end of last year it owned, managed or had on order 3,525 planes, engines and helicopters.
Mr Kelly said its 2024 financial results reflected “high demand for leased aircraft, engines and helicopters”.
