The commercial aviation industry is generally improving as demand for newer, fuel efficient, technologically advanced aircraft will continue to be a key driver of airline growth, says C. Jeffrey Knittel, President of Transportation Finance, CIT Group Inc.
 
Knittel discusses his outlook for the commercial aviation industry and market trends in Commercial Aviation Industry Outlook, the latest in a series of in-depth executive Q&As featured on CIT’s Executive Spotlight series).

In discussing his 2012 outlook for the commercial aviation industry, Knittel comments, “So far, the European sovereign debt crisis does not appear to be significantly affecting overall passenger traffic in Europe, although we’ve heard of some weakness in internal traffic of the most affected countries. We expect this to remain the same in 2012…. And while the industry will continue to be influenced by market-driven events, it will manage through these inflection points as it has in the past.”
 
Emerging markets, like Latin America, continue to provide opportunity for growth in the commercial aviation industry, Knittel adds, “We’ve been impressed with the development of the airline industry in Latin America over the past several years and view the growth opportunities in this market to be promising.”
 
Additionally, Knittel anticipates continued evolution of the Low Cost Carrier (LCC) model, “We think the LCC model will continue to evolve into a more ancillary revenue model…. With lots of short haul passengers, airlines can sell an array of unbundled services to a much larger pool of potential passengers than long haul operators. Similar to full service carriers, the sector will always be looking for ways to conserve capital, and this really is where lessors bring real value to airlines.”