Willis Lease Finance

Willis Lease Finance owns a portfolio of over 300 commercial jet engines valued in excess of $2.5 billion, plus a smaller portfolio of regional-jet airframes. Revenue comes primarily from short-to-medium term operating leases on mid-life engines, augmented by part-out sales from engines that reach end-of-life and fee income from its engine-management advisory subsidiary, Willis Asset Management. The firm also operates an FAA- and EASA-approved engine repair station in the UK, capturing MRO margin during engine transitions.

Yes. Willis Lease Finance trades on NASDAQ under the ticker WLFC. The company went public in 1997, roughly one year after its founding, and founder Charles F. Willis IV continues to serve as CEO and Chairman with significant personal ownership in the company.

Willis Lease competes with engine-finance arms of large aircraft lessors such as AerCap and SMBC Aviation Capital, as well as specialized independent engine lessors. The firm's primary differentiator is independence — it is not tethered to an airline parent or a broader aircraft-leasing platform, which enables it to serve carriers that prefer a pure-play engine partner with no competitive airframe-financing conflict.

The portfolio centers on the CFM56 family — specifically the CFM56-7B and CFM56-5B variants that power the Boeing 737NG and Airbus A320ceo families — and the International Aero Engines V2500, which also powers the A320ceo. These are the highest-volume narrowbody engine types in commercial service globally, producing deep aftermarket liquidity and predictable part-out values.

Willis acquires engines through a mix of new-manufacturer deliveries from CFM, direct purchase-and-leaseback transactions with airlines seeking fleet-financing liquidity, and secondary-market purchases from other lessors, banks, or carriers retiring airframes. The firm's in-house technical advisory arm, Willis Asset Management, surfaces off-market opportunities by managing engines on behalf of other institutional owners, creating a proprietary deal-flow channel.

Engines are the primary asset class, but Willis Lease does maintain a small portfolio of owned and managed regional-jet airframes, including CRJ and Embraer E-Jet family aircraft. These airframes are placed on operating leases with regional carriers and serve as a complementary, though smaller, line of business to the core engine-leasing franchise.

Willis Asset Management is a wholly owned subsidiary that provides outsourced engine-management and advisory services to other financial owners of aircraft engines — including banks, private equity investors and smaller leasing platforms. It functions as a fee-for-service business that also creates an information and sourcing advantage for the parent company's acquisition team by embedding Willis personnel in the maintenance and transition cycles of third-party portfolios.