DAE closes $9 billion Macquarie AirFinance deal, fleet reaches 1,000 aircraft
The Dubai lessor paid about $9 billion in enterprise value, above the $7 billion agreed in February 2026, after fleet changes between signing and closing.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise completed its purchase of Macquarie AirFinance on Wednesday, taking 100 percent of the lessor's outstanding share capital along with its consolidated subsidiaries. The enterprise value came in at about $9 billion.
That final number is larger than the one attached to the deal at signing. DAE struck a definitive agreement in February 2026 to buy the whole of Macquarie AirFinance at an enterprise value of roughly $7 billion. The difference reflects shifts in the target's fleet during the months between announcement and completion.
A book of about 1,000 aircraft
DAE now counts approximately 1,000 aircraft that it owns, manages or has committed to buy. The owned and managed portion flies on lease with more than 175 airlines in more than 75 countries. Beyond that sits a pipeline: about 150 further aircraft under commitment, coming from Boeing, Airbus, ATR and counterparties in the trading market.
Measured both by fleet value and by the number of aircraft owned and managed, the company places itself third among the world's lessors.
Firoz Tarapore, the chief executive, described the closing as the latest step in a run of large acquisitions and pointed to the scale the enlarged platform now carries. He also tied the deal to recently announced arrangements with Blackstone and Neuberger, which the company says widen what it can offer airlines as aircraft age out of one phase of their working lives and into the next.
Delivery positions running into the 2030s
Buying Macquarie AirFinance adds more than airframes. It deepens DAE's long-standing ties to Boeing and Airbus, and it extends delivery slots on the orderbook into the 2030s, headroom the lessor says it needs to answer airlines' fleet requirements.
On a pro forma basis, the combined business would hold 1,029 aircraft that are owned, managed or committed, and would serve 191 airline customers across 79 countries. Single-aisle jets make up roughly 70 percent of that combined fleet, a mix tilted toward the aircraft carriers use on short and medium-haul routes.
Thirty-seven airlines are expected to join the customer base as a result of the transaction, among them carriers in seven countries where DAE did not previously count airline customers.
Tarapore said the company would bring the incoming airlines into DAE Capital while widening its relationships with existing ones, and that the combined operation would be built on the strengths each side brings.
