NAFA member Mike Smith, President of Scope Aircraft Finance, shares his latest article in Plane Truth.
As we move further into 2026, I’ve spent some time during my travels reflecting on where we can provide the most value through our monthly Plane Truth finance posts. I’ve been financing aircraft since 2011, and this segment of the industry has always fascinated me.
As lenders, we have a front-row seat to so many cool areas of the industry, and by talking to our borrowers, we’re able to learn a lot about how the nation’s economy actually runs.
For the rest of 2026, my goal is to provide various updates on a regular cadence through our Plane Truth posts.
Quarterly, we’ll review industry interest rate conditions, informed by actions (or inactions) by the Federal Reserve, along with a review of the yield curve.
We’ll also take a quarterly look at macro transaction activity, which shows us how strong the market appears to be. Then, we’ll take a quarterly review of what interesting anecdotes we’re seeing out there.
This month, I wanted to briefly comment on what we’ve seen in our loan fundings so far this year.
This article was originally published in Plane Truth, Issue #17, on February 19, 2026.