Aircraft Portfolio (Details) (USD $) In Thousands, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
May 31, 2012	May 31, 2011	May 31, 2010
Aircraft portfolio
Sales from services	$ 680,774	$ 554,966	$ 284,661
Aircraft \| Owned Through Joint Ventures
Aircraft portfolio
Owned aircraft, number	18	23
Equity investments	41,326	39,994
Membership interest in limited liability companies (as a percent)	50.00%
Sales from services	600	1,289	772
Summarized income statement information
Sales	45,736	65,161	45,332
Income before provision for income taxes	3,651	7,449	967
Balance sheet information:
Assets	169,643	219,810
Debt	75,556	127,037
Members' capital	88,794	89,375
Aircraft \| Wholly-Owned
Aircraft portfolio
Owned aircraft, number	2	5
Components of investment in the wholly-owned aircraft, after consideration of financing
Gross carrying value	25,168	44,586
Debt	(8,380)	(14,072)
Capital lease obligation		(6,716)
Net AAR investment	$ 16,788	$ 23,798

Represents the gross carrying value of the aircraft on short-term and long-term leases with commercial airlines.

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The amount of debt reported by an equity method investment of the entity.

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Represents the net investment in aircraft, taking into account the gross carrying value, debt and capital lease obligations related to the aircraft.

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No definition available.

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Represents the number of aircraft owned by the entity.

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Amount equal to the present value (the principal) at the beginning of the lease term of minimum lease payments during the lease term (excluding that portion of the payments representing executory costs such as insurance, maintenance, and taxes to be paid by the lessor, together with any profit thereon) net of payments or other amounts applied to the principal through the balance sheet date.

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The percentage of ownership of common stock or equity participation in the investee accounted for under the equity method of accounting.

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This item represents the carrying amount on the entity's balance sheet of its investment in common stock of an equity method investee. This is not an indicator of the fair value of the investment, rather it is the initial cost adjusted for the entity's share of earnings and losses of the investee, adjusted for any distributions (dividends) and other than temporary impairment (OTTI) losses recognized.

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The amount of assets reported by an equity method investment of the entity.

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The amount of equity (capital) attributable to the equity method investment of the entity.

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The amount of income (loss) from continuing operations before extraordinary items reported by an equity method investment of the entity.

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The amount of revenue from sale of goods and services reduced by sales returns, allowances, and discounts reported by an equity method investment of the entity.

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Including current and noncurrent portions, aggregate carrying amount of long-term borrowings as of the balance sheet date. May include notes payable, bonds payable, commercial loans, mortgage loans, convertible debt, subordinated debt and other types of debt, which had initial maturities beyond one year or beyond the normal operating cycle, if longer, and after deducting unamortized discount or premiums, if any.

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Aggregate revenue during the period from services rendered in the normal course of business, after deducting allowances and discounts.

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