Richard Hakes

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Learn to fly: eVTOLs and autonomous flight

“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

Airline bailouts: a golden opportunity to take balance sheets from red, to black, to green

Developments in environmental regulation for the aviation industry have gathered momentum over the last year, notwithstanding the challenges arising from the pandemic and the related groundings. Last month saw the publication of plans for the UK Emissions Trading System, which is proposed to take the place of the European Union Emissions Trading System when the … Continue Reading

The Lufthansa bail out: Lessons learned

On 24 May 2020, the German government announced that it had agreed an extensive €9 billion rescue package for Lufthansa, including a significant recapitalisation leading to a government shareholding of 20 per cent. The European Commission indicated that any approval of the proposed bail out would be subject to slot divestitures at Lufthansa’s Frankfurt and … Continue Reading

Reed Smith update on the impact of Coronavirus on the aviation industry

The impact of COVID-19 (“Coronavirus”) on aviation is becoming more pronounced by the day, with the International Air Transport Association (“IATA”) yesterday asking that airport slot allocation rules be suspended to prevent airlines from losing their take-off and landing slots on the basis of failure to meet the required 80% usage rates, as flights continue … Continue Reading

JOL-ted into action

Background Leasing has been a staple of the aviation industry for more than 40 years, and has become increasingly attractive to the shipping industry over the last five years, particularly given the scarcity of traditional bank finance. Until 2017, Chinese money was the dominant force – particularly in aviation finance. However, the Chinese government has … Continue Reading

Case Note: Odyssey Aviation Ltd v GFG 737 Limited

Speed read A party should not assume that the failure of its counterpart to provide or satisfy conditions precedent gives rise to an automatic right to terminate or not perform a contingent obligation, where it could have obtained or satisfied those conditions precedent itself. Summary The recent Odyssey Aviation Ltd v GFG 737 Limited[1] in … Continue Reading

(Un)Happy Valentine’s Day

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

Aviation Finance: The Hong Kong Report

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

An Introduction to ECA Finance

In this blog post we take a brief look at export credit agency (“ECA”) supported finance in the asset finance industry, and the development of a new template loan agreement by the UK’s Loan Market Association. The role of the ECAs  ECA finance describes transactions where states (whether by direct sovereign bodies or by separately … Continue Reading

Farewell to 2017, and to the 747: An exciting year in review

What a year it has been! At the start of 2017, Reed Smith had no aviation finance team. We have now established teams in London, New York and Abu Dhabi (and we’re not done yet!). Across the board we have structured and closed a diverse range of transactions for lenders, lessors and operators alike (and … Continue Reading

An eye on the New Year

As we open our Advent Calendars each December, thoughts inevitably turn to Christmas, the New Year, and to what the next year will bring. But this year we are also looking 12 months ahead to New Year 2019. Why? Because January 2019 will see International Accounting Standard (IAS) 17 replaced by International Financial Reporting Standard … Continue Reading

Airline Economics – Hong Kong

The Reed Smith aviation team have returned to their offices in London, New York and Hong Kong but memories of this year’s Airline Economics “Growth Frontiers” Hong Kong conference are still fresh in the memory (or as fresh as they can be with jet lag!). Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt was packed to the rafters with … Continue Reading
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