General Electric is combining its aircraft leasing business with Ireland’s AerCap Holdings in a deal valued at more than $30 billion, a big step in what has become a six-year odyssey to reshape the one-time sprawling, global conglomerate. By pushing GE Capital Aviation Services, or GCAS, into a separate business, GE is essentially closing the books on GE Capital, the financial wing of General Electric that nearly sank the entire company during the 2008 financial crisis. “Today marks GE’s transformation to a more focused, simpler, and stronger industrial company,” Chairman and CEO Larry Culp said in a prepared statement Wednesday. AerCap will pay about $24 billion in cash for GCAS, and GE will take an approximately 46 percent ownership stake in the combined company, and $1 billion paid in AerCap notes or cash at closing. GE’s Capital Aviation Services and AerCap are two of the biggest aircraft leasers in the …