Start owning sheet metal anyway

A few years after the aeroplane attacks against the World Trade Center the prices of aeroplanes has fallen so much that Erik and Staffan Salén go against the family’s current strategy “not to own sheet metal”. In 2005 they invest in the first three Fokker planes that will be put to work by renting them out to Skyways. The fleet of aeroplanes in the Air transport company Largus Aviation grows rapidly and the planes are rented out to both Skyways and to the Salén-owned air-freight company Amapola who fly for Posten AB. But soon they find other customers abroad, such as Air Baltic, that leases five planes on long-term contracts. Despite the fact that airlines are under pressure all over the world, they succeed in achieving good profitability renting out the used planes, in part by converting the oldest planes to air freight planes.

“The aeroplanes were 10 years old when we bought them, but even so, are worth more today”, says Thomas Nordström who is Head of Finances at Salénia.