From Jon Skirrow Co-CEO and Chief Operating Officer Deucalion Aviation Limited.
With the addition of our shareholder’s (SVPGlobal) acquisitions and our expanding third-party business, the Deucalion-managed aircraft portfolio peaked at 192 units during 2022 and before reducing to 177 aircraft leased to 75 operators on behalf of 19 clients by the end of 2022.
In our first full calendar year of trading since being sold by DVB Bank SE, Deucalion closed 74 individual aircraft transactions. We concluded 33 new leases and 26 lease extensions; we sold 7 operational aircraft and 8 aircraft into the part-out market.
Lease extension requirements from top-tier credits have been a feature of the year, with some coming to us years before lease expiry to secure their long term lift. New lease placements have been strong as the industry recovers from the effects of the COVID pandemic, and we have seen some firming of lease rates for most aircraft types. We have selectively sold aircraft, selling a number into the buoyant freighter conversion market. We have seen strong demand in the part-out of narrowbody aircraft with engine prices back to pre-pandemic levels.
As the market has recovered, we have seen a 90% drop in arrears from the worse point during COVID across our managed fleet. Deliveries and redeliveries remained challenging in 2022 with labour issues, supply chain issues and delays with OEM and MROs all adding additional costs, delays and frustration for owners and operators alike. We hope that aircraft transitions will start to become more manageable and more efficient in 2023, but along with others in the industry, we are seeing little improvement to date.
We expect 2023 to be another strong year on the placement side with a number of transactions already close to conclusion and we also see a growing pipeline of new acquisition opportunities as we continue to build our portfolio. In addition, we expect to be increasing our volume of third-party servicing work and we are looking forward to some exciting times with our partners and clients during the next 12 months.
