Elevex Capital launches business aviation financing division
Specialty equipment finance firm Elevex Capital has launched a dedicated business aviation financing division led by Kyle O’Donnell.
The new division will offer tailored financing structures — including true leases, operating leases and loans — for transactions ranging from $1m to $25m and above, initially across the US and Canada.
Elevex structures financing around how aircraft generate value for their owners and operators, aligning lease and loan terms with usage patterns, charter revenue and contract cycles rather than forcing one-size-fits-all credit products. The firm serves small businesses, mid-sized companies, equipment sellers, third-party originators, community banks and capital markets partners, combining structuring expertise with AI-powered credit and asset intelligence.
Coinciding with the launch, Elevex joined the National Aircraft Finance Association (NAFA). “We are pleased to welcome Elevex Capital to NAFA and believe their structuring expertise will benefit all members,” said Bryan Byers, president of NAFA.
O’Donnell previously worked for Shearwater Capital and JSSI.
Targeting an underserved middle market
O’Donnell sees the strongest opportunity outside the top tier of the business aviation financing market.
“There are a bunch of players with really great rates on transactions that are $10 million and above. The big banks will be very helpful if you have enough AUM. Then there are the private equity lenders that want to play in G650 space all day long because they’re big transaction sizes,” O’Donnell told CJI.
Elevex is targeting the underserved middle — very light jets, midsize and super-midsize aircraft — while maintaining the capacity to structure larger transactions. A $1bn forward flow agreement with TPG, closed earlier this year, combined with committed bank lines from Wells Fargo and Woodforest Bank, positions the firm to deploy capital across the full spectrum and price competitively against traditional bank lenders, it said.
“We have the ability and the desire to do true leases and operating leases on aircraft,” O’Donnell noted. “We think we can be a really good partner to charter operations as they grow their fleets.”
Lender and structured solutions provider
With a core competency in leasing, Elevex is positioning itself as both a lender and a structured solutions provider.
“Leasing is not as common in business aviation. The typical borrower or lessee reaches out thinking they want a loan on the aircraft — especially in the US, with all the bonus depreciation considerations and tax components,” O’Donnell explained. “So we want to do both.”
He sees the fragmented nature of the business aviation borrower base as a strength rather than a challenge.
“It’s not commercial aviation where all your borrowers are operators. In business aviation, you have people in media, finance, oil and gas — all sorts of different industries. So you have a bit more protection, and it’s easier to keep concentrations from getting too crazy,” he said.
Borrower profile and growth plans
Elevex’s target profile spans US-based corporate borrowers, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and charter operators — a segment O’Donnell described as underserved.
“I don’t think there’s a cookie-cutter description. Charter operators are a bit underserved at the moment because they don’t have the balance sheets to get traditional financing. But we’re looking to hit the full spectrum,” he said.
The firm expects to expand into Mexico and the Caribbean in the near term, with Europe, Asia and Africa on the longer horizon as the business matures.
O’Donnell is launching the division as a one-person operation backed by Elevex’s 55-person asset management and credit team. Additional hires — particularly in aviation asset management — are anticipated as the book scales.
“A lot of the work happens on the asset side. You need aviation-focused people who can figure out residual values, whether a plane is one you want in your portfolio, where the maintenance events are that could hurt you in the future. So I think that would be the side we’d be doing more hiring on in the intermediate term,” he said.
Measuring success by market relevance
Asked how the new division will measure success, O’Donnell pointed to market relevance over volume.
“The dollar amount doesn’t really matter. The number of aircraft doesn’t really matter. We want to have a finance product that helps people accomplish something they weren’t able to accomplish before we started doing this,” he said.
