Steven Udvar-Hazy

About Me

Steven Udvar-Hazy, who immigrated to New York from Hungary as a child, is credited with creating the airplane leasing industry. He started his own airline in his 20s, but realized there was easier money to be made in buying planes and leasing them to airlines. Udvar-Hazy's first airplane leasing firm, International Lease Finance Corp., was sold to AIG in 1990 for $1.3 billion. He started his second airplane leasing company, Air Lease Corp., in 2010 and took it public a year later. He remains chairman. The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum named its sister location in Virginia for him after a $60 million donation in 2000. After immigrating to the U.S., Udvar-Hazy packed boxes in a Manhattan warehouse for 30 cents an hour when he was 14 years old.