Aircraft Lessor Basic Lease Rents

Aircraft lessor basic lease rents are the core periodic rents recognized from aviation assets under lease. AerCap reported $6.679B of basic lease rents in 2025, up from $6.377B in 2024. Basic rents represented about 90.6% of the company's $7.369B of total lease revenue, with maintenance rents and other receipts making up the balance. That distinction is useful because it separates ordinary rent from maintenance-related receipts, gain on asset sales, and other income.

Most of AerCap's 2025 base rent was fixed-rate

AerCap's leases can carry fixed rents or floating rents tied to interest rates. Only 1% of 2025 basic lease rents from flight equipment under operating leases came from floating-rate leases, so the reported line was overwhelmingly fixed-rate in that period.

2025 growth came from fleet investment, with offsets

AerCap attributed $568M of incremental basic rents to assets acquired during 2024 and 2025 and to converted Boeing 777-300ER freighters entering service. Asset sales reduced rent by $172M, while lease extensions at lower rates, lower power-by-the-hour rent, redeliveries, and terminations reduced it by another $94M.

That bridge is more informative than the 5% headline growth rate because it separates capital deployment from pricing and portfolio exits.

Reported rent can move differently from contractual cash

Lease accounting can matter around extensions and acquired leases. AerCap records remaining rental payments on certain extensions on a straight-line basis over the original remaining term plus the extension. Separately, lease premium amortization reduces reported basic lease rents under purchase accounting.

So basic lease rents are a recurring revenue measure, but they shouldn't be read as a direct cash-rent ledger.

Primary source: AerCap 2025 Form 20-F.

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