DUBLIN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China was the largest contributor to the operational income of the Irish aircraft leasing sector between 2009 and 2018, according to the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland.
During the ten-year period, the accumulated operational income of the Irish aircraft leasing sector stood at 86.8 billion euros (about 94 billion U.S. dollars), of which China was the largest source, providing 11.2 percent of all the operational leasing income, showed the figures in a CSO report entitled "Aircraft Leasing in Ireland 2018."
The next largest contributor was the United States, which contributed 9.1 percent, followed by Ireland (6.7 percent) and Russia (5.8 percent), said the report.
According to the report, in 2018 the Irish aircraft leasing sector made a total operational leasing income of 15.2 billion euros, accounting for nearly 85 percent of its total income which stood at 17.9 billion euros in the year.
Operational leasing income refers to the income generated through the leasing of aircraft while total income includes income from other sources such as interest and dividends.
In 2018 the after-tax profit of the Irish aircraft leasing sector stood at 4.7 billion euros, said the report.
This indicates that the Irish aircraft leasing sector is a highly profitable sector as its 2018 profit ratio was as high as more than 26 percent.
The report said that by the end of 2018, the total assets of the Irish aircraft leasing sector were valued at 140.1 billion euros, up by over 200 percent compared with its 43.2 billion euros worth of assets in 2009. In 2018, the sector employed almost 2,000 people.
Ireland is an aircraft leasing hub in the world mainly due to its attractive 12.5-percent corporate income tax.
Of the 10,000-odd leased commercial aircraft around the world, the number of the aircraft operated by the leasing companies based in Ireland accounted for about 60 percent, according to the statistics provided by Industrial Development Authority, a state agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment into Ireland. (1 euro=1.081 U.S. dollars)
