Ireland is a small island on the edge of Europe. 

We build no aircraft, we have no Boeing, no Airbus, no Embraer. Yet Ireland has become the centre of the global aircraft leasing industry. More than 30 per cent of the world’s leased aircraft are managed from here. It is, by any measure, an extraordinary achievement.

The numbers tell their own story. At the end of 2024, total aviation assets housed in Ireland stood at €268 billion — a 52 per cent increase since 2014, accoraeding to data compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).  

The sector employs 3,000 people, with average annual salaries north of €200,000. 

Collectively, they earn €620 million and pay more than €348 million in employment taxes each year. 

The sector is robustly profitable – profits reached €2.1 billion in 2024.  As the sector grows, so too does its level of corporate tax receipts.  The tax figure for last year was €156 million.

Companies like AerCap and Avolon are real businesses employing real people paying real tax. 

This is not an industry of “brass plates” and PO boxes; it is one of high-value jobs, real expertise, and meaningful contributions to the Exchequer.

Compare that with the Section 110 industry. 

As I reported last week, these special-purpose vehicles, designed to bundle debt and assets, now hold €1.18 trillion on Irish balance sheets — multiple of the Irish economy. Yet they employ very few, pay just €10 million a year in payroll taxes, and deliver only modest corporation tax returns. 

They may bulk up our economic figures, but they do little for the people who live and work in Ireland.

Aviation leasing, by contrast, is the opposite: tangible, global, rooted here. And for that, we must remember one name above all: Tony Ryan.

Ryan was a pioneer, a genius. He saw things others did not, and he had the steel and skill to implement his visions. 

When he founded GPA (Guinness Peat Aviation) in Shannon fifty years ago this year, he effectively invented an industry. He saw that airlines, especially in emerging markets, could not afford to buy aircraft outright — but they could lease them. What began as a bet became a revolution in airline economics.

GPA eventually stumbled under the weight of its own ambition. The aborted float was the final nail in the company’s coffin. But Ryan’s idea endured. 

It created a generation of financiers, lawyers, and deal-makers who built the ecosystem that today dominates global aviation leasing. Industry heavyweights such as Aengus Kelly of AerCap and Domhnal Slattery, the founder of Avolon, both earned their spurs at GPA. Another old assistant, Michael O’Leary, turned Ryan’s fledgling airline Ryanair into a global powerhouse, while his son Declan founded low fares airlines around the world. 

Ryan’s achievement was not just financial engineering. It was industrial policy, even if it didn’t carry that name. He created a cluster in Shannon that married aviation know-how with legal, accounting, and financial expertise. He also convinced the State to back his idea, and the State followed through in style, inking dozens of Double Taxation Agreements with other countries all over the world. It allowed the sector to thrive.

As aviation analyst Joe Gill argued in a recent article for The Currency, aviation leasing is the “crown jewel” in the Irish economic model.

But the crown jewel must be polished. Other hubs — Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, even mainland China — have studied Ireland’s model and want a piece of the action. They offer lower payroll taxes and, increasingly, aggressive treaty networks to rival our own.

At home, aviation leaders warn that Ireland’s high payroll tax regime makes it harder to attract international talent. A sector where average salaries top €200,000 is also a sector where marginal tax rates bite hardest. If Ireland wishes to keep its edge, it cannot take the loyalty of global lessors for granted.

There are also new pressures: the climate transition looms over aviation. Leasing companies will be central to financing the move to more efficient fleets, but they will also face scrutiny from regulators, investors, and environmental groups. Joe teased through some of these issues in his recent column on the sector, arguing that Ireland now needs to extend the existing aircraft asset treaty network to include a number of large markets, including Indonesia, Australia and Brazil. He also called for the introduction of an Aircraft Digital Certificate (ADC) for all commercial aircraft that allows more efficient trading of high-value assets.

As Joe put it: “A programme of continuous improvement is a well-known management tool among the best-managed companies. The same mindset applied to supporting the aircraft leasing industry in Ireland will help not only to retain but also to enhance its strength and prowess.”

For policymakers, the lesson is clear. Ireland’s economy has thrived when it builds real industries — clusters of skills, assets, and expertise that cannot easily be replicated elsewhere. Aviation leasing is the perfect example. Section 110, by contrast, is about financial manoeuvring.

Tony Ryan proved that Ireland could lead the world in a sector it had no natural claim to. He turned a good idea into a great industry. The responsibility now lies with today’s policymakers to ensure that this crown jewel continues to shine.

Elsewhere last week…

Shrewd, resilient, and ambitious, John Bruder has navigated Ireland’s property market from AIB to Treasury Holdings, founding Burlington, and now spearheading Gresham House Real Estate Ireland. He sat down to discuss his journey with Tom.

After a decade in business, Stable of Ireland co-founders Frances Duff and Sonia Reynolds reflected with Rosaleen on evolving consumer habits and the rise of a more thoughtful approach to retail.

New data sheds light on the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process, revealing low uptake, mixed outcomes, and surprising patterns in jobs saved — as well as the limited role of Revenue’s veto.

Founded in 2003 with ambitions to become an international oil producer, PetroNeft Resources expanded from Dublin to the frozen plains of western Siberia. It is now being wound up. I explained what happened.