AerCap faces $3.5bn fight with insurers over stranded Russian planes
AerCap faces a lengthy legal battle to secure up to $3.5bn from insurers after more than 100 planes owned by the world’s biggest aircraft leasing company were seized by their Russian operators, in a dispute that will provide a template for a wave of other claims.
The challenge facing AerCap has been set out in legal papers filed at the High Court in London, where the case pits the Dublin-based company against one group of insurers led by AIG of the US and another led by the Lloyd’s of London insurance market.
AerCap believes it has a valid claim for the loss of 116 aircraft and 23 spare aircraft engines that the company has failed to recover from Russian operators since February 25, the day after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
However, AerCap’s filing said the all-risk insurers should accept its claim.
“Wrongfully and in breach of the policy, the Section One insurers have not paid the sum or any part of it to the insureds,” its case said.
The two groups of insurers disagreed in their filings on what should happen if the court held that, contrary to their arguments, the aircraft had in fact been lost.
The group led by AIG argued that the decision to retain the aircraft was a political one — which could put it outside the scope of the coverage that they provide.
“In the circumstances . . . the acts of the lessees . . . were acts done for political purposes,” their defence argued.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright
