PNC Aviation Finance posted a record year in 2017, with originations for business aircraft up nearly 40 percent from the previous year. The company provided financing to more than 170 clients, ranging from high-net-worth individuals borrowing several million for a business turboprop to large corporations doing full-fleet financing on multiple large business jets. PNC Aviation Finance currently has more than 500 business aircraft in its portfolio.

“Volume and transaction activity was up across the board, including our non-recourse asset-based product, more traditionally underwritten loans, and synthetic and tax leases, where we did a record number of transactions,” said Alex Overstrom, head of PNC Aviation Finance. “To support this activity, we continued to expand our team over the course of the year, and now have close to 40 people across the U.S. and Canada exclusively focused on aviation finance,” Overstrom said, predicting that 2018 would likely be stronger than 2017.  “We see even more opportunity to help our clients in 2018.”

PNC continues to expand into executive and EMS helicopter finance as well. Overstrom said PNC's strong healthcare business is being leveraged to boost its presence in the air medical market.