For the first quarter of 2021, we are reporting $475 million in total revenues and diluted earnings per share of $0.70 a share, down 7% and 40%, respectively, compared to the prior year's prepandemic first quarter.
Our results this quarter were impacted by approximately $86 million of rental revenues we did not recognize in the quarter due to cash versus accrual basis revenue recognition and lease restructurings.
We took delivery of approximately $600 million in new aircraft in the quarter, which is $200 million more than we originally anticipated.
87% of these deliveries by dollar value occurred in the last seven business days of March, providing minimal rental contribution for the quarter, but providing long-term rental contributions thereafter.
Our cash collections and lease utilization rate remained solid in the first quarter at 84% and 99.6%, respectively, albeit both slightly lower than what we saw in Q4.
To date, we have agreed to accommodations with approximately 63% of our lessees, with deferrals totaling approximately $243 million.
As of today, our net deferrals stand at $131 million as compared to $144 million as of our last call in February, and almost half of all the deferrals we have granted to date have been repaid.
Our net deferrals represent less than 2% of our available liquidity at the end of the first quarter.
As such, our lease placements remain strong at 95% of our order book placed on long-term leases for aircraft delivery through 2022 and 80% through 2023.
So looking ahead, we technically have OEM-contracted commitments to take delivery of 64 aircraft in the remainder of 2021.
But given continued OEM and pandemic delays, we currently expect to deliver approximately 44 aircraft, and that number could change.
We expect a range of approximately $3 billion to $4.3 billion in aircraft investments for the full year 2021.
As of today, we are anticipating approximately $1.2 billion of these deliveries to occur in the second quarter.
We're pleased that 787 deliveries have resumed.
And in the first quarter, we delivered one 787 to Air Premia in South Korea.
As you saw from our quarterly fact sheet release, we also delivered four 737-8MAX aircraft this quarter.
As it relates to the recent grounding notice issued regarding the electrical power system on the 737 MAX aircraft, we did have six aircraft delivered to our customers, subject to this order.
Until this process with the FAA is concluded, we may experience further delivery delays of the 787.
However, we anticipate our overall sales in 2021 will not reach prepandemic level.
In fact, in just a 100-day period, we sourced in the secondary market over $600 million of aircraft suited specifically for Blackbird Capital II, of which two delivered in the first quarter and the remaining aircraft will deliver over future quarters.
As such, I'm proud to announce that ALC is donating $100,000 to the relief efforts in India.
Over the last decade, Air Lease has focused on growing our company organically to now over $25 billion in assets, and our fleet and order book are comprised of the aircraft we personally selected.
In the United States last year, at this time, TSA was seeing below 200,000 passengers a day.
And as of this last Sunday, the TSA had over 1.6 million passengers pass through their security checkpoints.
For example, Greece recently announced that it is reopening its doors to COVID-free tourists from more than 30 countries as they take the so-called baby steps back to normalcy.
It was recently reported that consumers around the world had accumulated an extra $5.4 trillion of savings since the pandemic has begun, and we've heard executives across a broad spectrum of industry discussing pent-up demand that they believe exists.
For example, John mentioned the two 787-9 aircraft that we recently delivered to China Southern and Air Premia in Korea took another 787-9s.
In addition, we delivered the first of what will be five new 737 aircraft to Belavia, the national carrier of Belarus.
These aircraft will replace the airlines aging Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 aircraft.
We also delivered our third 737-8 to Cayman Airways in the Caribbean, the national flag carrier of Cayman Islands, which is retiring its last 737-300 aircraft and replacing it with our new 737-8 model, and the first of which, 10 737-8 aircraft that we just delivered to Blue Air in Romania.
Blue Air is a ULCC carrier in Eastern Europe, which is also accelerating the retirement of their classic fleet of 737-300s and 500s in favor of more environmentally friendly and economic narrow-body aircraft.
We have also placed our first 15 Airbus A220-300 aircraft from our 50 aircraft per motor of that type.
On the used aircraft side, our young fleet of 777-300ERs and A330-200s and 300s remain well placed with our customers, with only a modest number of lease expirations in the next 12 to 24 months, all of which are manageable.
We've also successfully extended the leases on a number of our 777-300 aircraft in the last six months.
Finally, let me add one additional comment to John on the 737 MAX program.
China, in particular, is a very large marketplace for the 737 family and the MAX.
Recovery of the Boeing 737 program will not be complete until these countries certify and can obtain clearances to operate the 737 MAX in their country and for overflights.
ALC remains fully committed to the 737 program, but I do feel compelled to point out that these remaining obstacles, including the very frustrating current grounding, need to be overcome by Boeing with haste.
The progress of U.S.A. and European summer traffic growth will also play a role in the pace of new 737 absorption by airlines for the remainder of 2021.
As John mentioned, revenues were impacted by $86 million from the lease restructuring agreements and cash basis accounting, of which $49 million came in from lessees on a cash basis, where the lease receivables exceeded the lease security package and collection was not reasonably assured.
This compares to $25 million in the third quarter and $21 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
In total, our cash basis lessees represented 15.3% of our fleet by net book value as of March 31, as compared to 7.8% as of December 31.
The remaining $37 million is from lease restructuring agreements, the majority of which went into effect in 2020.
Our total deferrals, net of repayments to date, is approximately $131 million, of which is down 9% from $144 million as of our last call in February.
Since our last call, repayment activity has continued, with total repayments of $112 million or 46% of the gross deferrals granted and is reflected in our operating cash flow.
Our composite rate decreased to 3% from 3.2% in the first quarter of 2020.
Depreciation continues to track the growth of our fleet, while SG&A remained relatively low compared to last year, down 5%, representing 5.7% of total revenues.
We have maintained our dividend policy and our Board has extended our share buyback authorization of $100 million through the end of December 2021.
Utilizing unsecured debt is our primary form of financing and have $23.7 billion in unencumbered assets at quarter end.
And we ended the year with a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.5 times.
In addition to the senior unsecured note issuances we completed in January at a record low of 0.7%, we returned to the preferred market in February for our second raise in the space, issuing $300 million of perpetual preferred stock at a rate of 4.65%.
Finally, as just announced last week, we extended the final maturity of our bank revolver to 2025 and upsized the facility by an additional $200 million, bringing our total revolving unsecured line of credit to $6.4 billion.
As mentioned, ALC continues to have a robust liquidity position with $7.5 billion of available liquidity at the end of the first quarter and continue to access the investment-grade markets.
As I shared in the past, our balance sheet was originally designed to support $6 billion in aircraft investments annually, and we are well above what we anticipate taking in 2021, leaving us plenty of dry powder to explore further opportunities.

Summary:
For the first quarter of 2021, we are reporting $475 million in total revenues and diluted earnings per share of $0.70 a share, down 7% and 40%, respectively, compared to the prior year's prepandemic first quarter.
However, we anticipate our overall sales in 2021 will not reach prepandemic level.
We also delivered our third 737-8 to Cayman Airways in the Caribbean, the national flag carrier of Cayman Islands, which is retiring its last 737-300 aircraft and replacing it with our new 737-8 model, and the first of which, 10 737-8 aircraft that we just delivered to Blue Air in Romania.