Originally Posted by
Arliss
As far as airframe ownership we're actually starting to see that United is buying the 145s. The placards on the flight deck door are starting to say United Continental instead of Wells Fargo bank.
Pretty common in a capital lease for the ownership to revert to the lessee at the residual value of the aircraft. Wells Fargo wouldn’t want to own the 145’s and would have set the residual conservatively low. I suspect UnitedContinental used the aircraft to raise cash during a period when cash was needed. Now, as leases end, the ownership is reverting. All this should be in their annual report.