737, A320 supplies tighten in leasing market

The supply of medium-haul commercial jetliners in the leasing market is tight, thanks to strong growth this year among low-fare carriers in Asia.

"Airlines tend to sign leases in advance. The [supply] situation is still tight. There are no new aircraft [available for lease] this year," said Robert Martin, chief executive of Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, in a Dow Jones News Service report.

Because of a dearth of available airplanes, lease rates have risen around 20 percent since the middle of last year to about $300,000 a month for a new Airbus A320 and $350,000 for a new Boeing 737, industry analysts told Dow Jones.

"The outlook for aircraft leasing companies has improved quite a lot since late 2004, largely because of an improvement in lease rates for some of the more popular types of aircraft" including the 737 and the A320, said Shukor Yusof, a Standard & Poor's aviation analyst, in the Dow Jones report.