Saudi Arabian jet lessor AviLease is seeking to double its fleet by 2030, supported by its owner, the kingdom’s wealth fund, which plans to pump in billions of dollars of capital over the next few years.

The firm will manage 167 jets following the acquisition of Standard Chartered Plc’s aviation finance business this week and wants to grow that to 300 over the next seven years, Chief Executive Officer Ted O’Byrne said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

“The degree of growth that we are expecting in Saudi Arabia over the next 10 years is quite exceptional,” he said.

“We’re talking about tripling passenger traffic, more than doubling cargo traffic. So in that context the PIF has committed additional equity to the balance sheet,” he said, referring to the Public Investment Fund.

AviLease expects its balance sheet to grow to $20 billion from $6 billion by 2030. The firm is targeting an investment-grade rating by the middle of next year and hopes to issue up to $2 billion of dollar-denominated bonds annually.

It will have a “lot of capacity” to acquire wide-body aircraft, O’Byrne said. While the company’s goal is to support local airlines, it also wants more exposure to regional carriers including Dubai’s Emirates, he said.

Founded last year, AviLease is one of many companies set up in Saudi Arabia to help diversify the kingdom from oil. As part of of a push by the country to become a global trade, logistics and tourism hub, the government has also launched a new airline and plans to build one of the world’s biggest airports in its capital, Riyadh.

“The next step for us post-integration is to go after an investment grade rating,” O’Byrne said. “So, you’ll see us issue capital in all global markets, and one of our focus is to really bring in capital inside the country as much as we can.”

--With assistance from Sarah Halls and Gaia Lamperti.

Author: Leen Al-Rashdan, Yousef Gamal El-Din and Manus Cranny