“Fly along with me,” sings Dave Grohl, “I can’t quite make it alone.” We can imagine eVTOL developers singing along to this as they work towards autonomous flight, as so many of the vehicle models will have to commence operations – however briefly – with a pilot onboard. But the ultimate viability of the eVTOL … Continue Reading
As a result of the COVID pandemic, with the resulting payment defaults amongst several airlines , the past few years have seen a surge in interest in distressed debt opportunities within the aviation sector. One particular area which has seen a lot of attention has been Japanese tax leasing – namely the Japanese operating lease … Continue Reading
Hop to it: Vertiports as an asset class The sums invested in the development of electric vertical take-off and landing (‘eVTOL’) aircraft have been well publicised. It seems that not a week goes by without a new partnership announcement, a new SPAC combination, or another large investment being reported in the press – such as … Continue Reading
As with the rest of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has not been kind to African aviation industry stakeholders. To paint a broad picture of market performance, the African Airlines Association’s (AFRAA) recent report noted a 50% drop in capacity since April 2019 with the continent facing greater declines in 2020 in passenger numbers, seats … Continue Reading
It is still remarkable when you board a flight, after trying to squeeze a few final minutes out of the airport WiFi connection, when you see that your aircraft has its own internet connection. Although the technology to connect an aircraft to wireless internet-providing satellites has been around for the best part of the last … Continue Reading
It is now a unanimous conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the worst ever crisis in the history of the aviation industry. In 2020, we saw major airlines such as Avianca, LATAM, Thai Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia enter into formal insolvency or restructuring proceedings, with the majority of other airlines being … Continue Reading
In an article a few weeks ago on ‘How tech went big on green energy’, the Financial Times referred to a report released in February by Lancaster University and Small World Consulting, which found that the information and communication technology sector (i.e. IT) ‘is estimated to form ca. 1.8-2.8% of global GHG emissions in 2020’[1]. … Continue Reading
2020 was a challenging year for the aviation industry as a whole due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but for Boeing it has been an even more challenging time as it has also had to deal with the global grounding of its flagship product, the 737 MAX, since March 2019. The 737 MAX was launched with … Continue Reading
Well, sort of. There are parallels to be drawn – I know, but indulge me for a moment. With Avengers: Endgame released this week, it’s the end of an era. Much like the Avengers, we in aviation have lost a few of our heroes recently, and there are likely to be more losses to come. … Continue Reading
It turned out to be an unhappy Valentine’s Day for the Airbus A380 and her admirers, as Airbus announced the scrapping of the A380 programme, with the last deliveries scheduled for 2021. It’s hardly a shock, however, after the fleet’s first retirement last year and with two of them already being parted out. The economics of … Continue Reading
We have published our semi-annual update on developments in state and local tax affecting the aviation industry. In this update, we will focus on some noteworthy sales and use tax law changes, cases, rulings, and guidance from the second half of 2018. Click here for a copy of the client alert.… Continue Reading
At the end of last year I wrote a published piece entitled “The Allure of Investing in Aviation”. A client asked me this week whether, a year later, I stood by what I’d written. To answer that, you have to decide whether or not you think 2018 was a good year for the airline industry … Continue Reading
Our aviation finance team has made it to the end of its first complete year since its relaunch in summer 2017 – and it has been a big one! We have worked on transactions involving over 100 aircraft and 19 different jurisdictions, we have met with clients and friends in Dublin, New York, Hong Kong … Continue Reading
A 2017 survey showed that just 3% of airline chief executives are female, against the FTSE 100’s 7% at the same time. As of the middle of 2018, only 12 of the 286 IATA member airlines were led by women – a mere 4%. And with the future of Flybe under question at the time … Continue Reading
The Hong Kong conferences are over for another year, and our Aviation Finance team had another very productive week at the various sessions. It was great to see so many familiar faces and connect with new people, and doing so in what is fast becoming one of the world’s new aviation finance powerhouse jurisdictions gave … Continue Reading
Aviation seems to be facing a fuel-related existential crisis at the moment, as pressures mount on the industry from various angles. Within asset finance generally the major discussion is the looming bite of the IMO 2020 regulations, which will reduce the amount of sulphur permitted in ship fuel oil to a limit of 0.50 per … Continue Reading
The heatwave may be over but the wave of August out-of-office responses is still building, so rather than post about controversial redelivery conditions or the fascinating behaviour of interest rates, and prompted by the striking intersection of aviation and literature recently, we thought it seemed high time to offer Legal Flight Deck: The Summer Reading … Continue Reading
