Citi Wealth Lifts Lid On Its Private Aviation Finance Approach

Tom Burroughes

28 August 2025

In the months towards the end of 2020 and the aftermath, Michael Francis (pictured below) of . The aircraft financing business is an example of how the wealth side of the organisation dovetails with its commercial and investment banking elements.

Growth figures for private jet business remain robust. The global private aircraft market size is slated to be worth about $80.8 billion by 2034, equating to a compound annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent from today (source: market.us, April 2025). According to a 2024 report by Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, the sector has been on an “amazing six-year run-up”; business aviation activity reached a recent high level and is settling in for a “prolonged period of steady growth.” The annual report said aircraft manufacturers expect to deliver 830 new business jets valued at $27 billion in 2025.

Besides Citigroup, other US banks in the sector for loans on private planes include US Bank and JP Morgan Private Bank and HSBC.

As this news service has noted before, as in this profile of Europe’s Airbus and its business jets division, or here, the health of this sector can be a barometer for wealth managers and advisors to track. It sheds light on how HNW people feel; what their appetite for risk and experiences are, and how much they’re willing to spend on comfort and avoiding problems.

A passion for aircraft
Francis joined Citi Wealth in January, having previously worked as a managing director at SVB Private Wealth/First Citizens Wealth, and before this, held senior jobs at First Republic Bank, 1st Source Bank and CIT Bank. He also handled aviation issues for a large family office. As part of his background, Francis obtained a bachelor of applied science – BASc, aviation management and an MBA. Skills on his Linkedin profile include those of "pilot." Flying since his high school days, Francis now “flies a desk." It’s clear that he loves aviation and brings that zest for the sector to the job.

And hands-on experience of aircraft is something that cannot be faked, and is part of the value-add that Citi Wealth seeks to promote to its clients, he said. If an aviation owner – or potential one – is talking to the corporate side of Citigroup, Francis can pick up a call, set up a virtual/real meeting and be the go-to expert.

The loans environment
Part of what Francis does is frame clients' expectations about what sort of loans are viable or not. The decade-plus of ultra-low US interest rates is long gone. Another change is that people are, in his experience, much savvier about aviation finance than was once the case.

“There is a lot more knowledge among our customers in deciding what to buy and use than there was 10 or 15 years ago. There are more private space…it is a very safe one for our shareholders,” Francis said.

The “wealth management” side of the Citi Wealth offering is part of the recipe, he said. Citi Wealth goes beyond the mechanics of an aircraft loan and works with clients to figure out if buying an aircraft makes sense or not, and for the client to understand how having a plane sits on their balance sheet. Not everyone who could afford a plane needs to have one. “For every loan I have arranged, I have also convinced a customer that they don’t need a plane,” Francis said.

There is a need, in other words, for a trusted advisor to wealthy clients to help them avoid making costly mistakes.

The market is busy. To give one example, Flexjet, a private aviation firm, said in July that it had closed an $800 million equity investment.

This is a global sector, and the US, Brazil and Asia-Pacific are strong markets. Francis said he visited Brazil this year and is due to visit Singapore and Hong Kong in the autumn as part of his job. Perhaps fittingly, Francis spends a fair amount of time up in the air.