Aviation Finance Lawyers Worldwide.

An Aviation Finance lawyer acts as the architect for high-value aircraft transactions, serving airlines, banks, lessors, and private owners. Their work involves structuring complex deals like “Sale and Leasebacks” (where an airline sells a plane to a lessor and immediately rents it back to raise cash), drafting loan documentation, and ensuring tax efficiency. Beyond the paperwork, they handle the critical “delivery and acceptance” process, physically and legally transferring the asset, and manage the enforcement of rights if a borrower defaults, including the repossession of aircraft stranded in foreign countries.

The Cape Town Convention (CTC) is the “gold standard” treaty that reduces the risk for lenders by creating a unified international legal standard for aircraft rights. Before the CTC, lenders feared that if an airline in a foreign country went bankrupt, local courts might refuse to let them repossess the jet. The CTC solves this by establishing an International Registry where lenders can record their interest, ensuring they have “priority” over other creditors and a standardized legal right to seize the aircraft quickly in the event of default.

Yes, purchasing a private jet is far more complex than buying a house, and a lawyer manages the process from the “Letter of Intent” (LOI) to the final closing. They negotiate the Aircraft Purchase Agreement (APA) to include critical “pre-buy inspection” clauses, ensuring you can walk away if the inspection reveals corrosion or engine damage. They also structure the ownership entity (often an LLC or SPV) to comply with FAA registration rules and minimize sales tax or VAT liability, which can save millions on a high-value asset.

PDPs are massive progress payments that an airline must pay to a manufacturer (like Boeing or Airbus) while an aircraft is being built, often years before it is delivered. Since the aircraft doesn’t physically exist yet, a lawyer cannot secure the loan with a mortgage on the metal. Instead, they secure the financing by creating a “security assignment” of the airline’s purchase contract with the manufacturer; if the airline defaults, the lender steps into their shoes and takes over the right to buy the finished aircraft.

Repossession is a high-stakes legal operation that often requires immediate “self-help” action or emergency court orders. A lawyer will typically trigger an IDERA (Irrevocable De-Registration and Export Request Authorization), a powerful document filed with the aviation authority that forces them to de-register the plane so it can be flown out of the country. They coordinate with local counsel to physically secure the aircraft at the airport, settle unpaid fuel or hangar liens that could block departure, and fly the asset to a “friendly” jurisdiction for storage.

An SPV is a separate company created solely to own a specific aircraft, designed to isolate financial risk. Lawyers use “orphan trust” structures where the SPV’s shares are held by a charitable trust rather than the airline or lender. This ensures “bankruptcy remoteness”—if the airline goes bankrupt, the aircraft is legally separate and safe from the airline’s general creditors, allowing the lender to repossess it cleanly without getting dragged into the airline’s insolvency proceedings.