Aviation financing jobs take off

Massive expansion in the aviation financing industry is fuelling recruitment, and demand for talent is outstripping supply.

New players, such as Swedish group Volito Aviation, set up in Ireland last year, while existing players like Genesis Lease Limited are looking to up numbers of staff. Meanwhile, industry mainstays such as CIT Aerospace, RBS Aviation, AWAS and GECAS have been all been recruiting.

While Ireland has a typical expertise in this area, there still aren't enough people to fill the aggressive expansion in an industry that is currently flying high.

Estelle Davis, senior consultant financial services at recruiters Brightwater, says: "There's everything from legal, compliance, accounting, competitive analysis and risk analysis roles being created. These roles are highly skilled and, although there's a pool of candidates, demand is currently outstripping supply."

Conor O'Brien, tax partner at KPMG in Ireland, which deals with 99% of tax issues surrounding aviation financing, says 2008 is unlikely to see the same amount of activity as last year, but the industry will still grow.

"We've seeing quite a few executives spinning out and setting up their own smaller operations over the last 12 months or so and that will definitely continue," he says.

Davis predicts that in order to fill the shortfall of candidates, firms will tap other financial industries: "There will be more people up-skilling from traditional banking, accounting or insurance roles to fill the roles in the aircraft securitisation industry. Newly-qualified to three-year post-qualified accountants are viewing it as a viable alternative to the traditional industries."

A newly-qualified accountant working in the aviation securitisation industry can expect to earn around €55k to €56k, while more senior posts, like a head of regulatory reporting, can bring in €85k to €90k.

O'Brien adds that the changes to the US tax code in 2004 gave the green light to many firms to manage their non-US leasing activities from Dublin, and that this was the turning point for the new lease of life the industry is experiencing.