Crestone strengthens freighter, engine footprint

Crestone Air Partners plans to continue enlarging its presence in the freighter and engine markets.

The Denver-based lessor has grown its portfolio to about $500 million in assets under management since becoming an independent subsidiary of Air T in July 2022. That portfolio includes freighter and passenger aircraft and engines as well as landing gear, Crestone Chief Executive Kevin Milligan says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.”

The lessor started its freighter activities by buying two 737 Classics in 2022, but Crestone now aims to make larger, “package type” transactions, Milligan says.

“In our earlier days, I think we were focused on smaller stuff generally just to get going and to build the track record and the portfolio,” he says. “And now we’re trying to look a little bit more toward scale and some efficiency with the platform.”

Crestone in late 2023 moved into 737NG freighters and bought three from GA Telesis with leases attached, but it still sees value in 737-400Fs.

“Granted, there are still a lot of parked aircraft and it’s going to take years for that to be reabsorbed into the system but, fundamentally, people need freighters and there’s a trend, I think, to more and more of that,” Milligan says. “So, we look for those types of value dynamics. We like the -800 still, at the right price.”

In October, Crestone added another freighter type to its portfolio by taking on the first of two A321Fs under management. That aircraft is an A321-200PCF on lease to Global Crossing Airlines.

“We’re looking for customers out in the market that might want to adopt the A321F,” Milligan says. “We think it offers a lot of capability. It hasn’t been widely adopted yet, though, and I think that’ll come in time.”

Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more of Milligan’s conversation about Crestone with Cargo Facts Senior Associate Editor Robert Luke.