Four Stock Plays on Air Travel Abroad

There is always room in a portfolio I manage for something that has a high yield that does not correlate highly to the U.S. stock market.

Last week Babcock and Brown Air(FLY) debuted. This company will take the proceeds from its IPO to buy a fleet of 47 planes that it will lease to airlines all over the world.

The idea is to have leases of varying lengths and terms and then pay sizeable dividends to its share holders. FLY will pay a dividend of $0.50 per quarter, which works out to an 8.7% yield.

While I may be the last to know, it turns out there are several other public companies in essentially the same business.

Your first thought might be that the airline industry is a mess. While that is true in the U.S., it is a different ballgame in India, China and South America. Short flights in these places are now accessible to many more people than in the past and the airlines serving these markets need airplanes. Leasing them from FLY and its competitors ties up less capital than buying a whole fleet.

In addition to FLY, I was able to find three other companies that lease planes to airlines, although there may be others.