Chinese aircraft lessors are investing heavily to build up their asset management skills to match their financial firepower as they try to take on U.S. and European leasing giants, senior executives in the sector said at a conference on Thursday.

And while they lag many U.S. and European rivals in terms of experience, geopolitical allegiances and Western firms' nervousness about the Chinese market also give them significant advantages, they said.

The around US$228 billion global aircraft leasing sector was once seen as the exclusive preserve of Western players.

But aircraft leasing subsidiaries of China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications (BOCOM) are rapidly expanding, while leasing units of Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Development Bank already figure among the top 15 global lessors.

"There are many Chinese leasing companies and they play a more and more important role in the international market, but they need to be more professional," Li Ling, Managing Director Aviation for BOCOM Leasing, told the Global Airfinance Conference in Dublin.

In particular, she said they needed to focus on skills such as pricing and marketing while diversifying their financing channels to reduce their dependence on simply earning interest on capital.

Joe Ye Tian, Deputy Head of Aviation, Ping An Leasing, this week said just 5 percent of Ping An's total US$1.2-US$1.5 billion balance sheet could buy 2,000 planes, which would be the largest fleet in the world.

Chinese leasing firms have been acquisitive in recent years but that process could slow this year with interest rates going up and with RMB depreciation, Li Ling said.

Aircraft leasing magnate Steven Udvar-Hazy earlier this week said new Asian lessors that had come to the market in recent years tended to have impressive financial resources, but lacked key skills in remarketing old aircraft and assessing values of planes coming off leases.

"But I think it's an ongoing process and I think we are seeing these lessors hire more talent from the West, hire more experienced people," he told the rival Airline Economics conference.

David Wang, managing director of China's ICBC Financial Leasing, one of the largest domestic Chinese lessors, also said it has been improving remarketing, redelivery and repossession skills over the last three years.