Gates & Partners’ launches seminar initiatives for the aviation industry.

Wednesday 30th November 2011

Latest seminar confirms insurers can not pay out on illegal charter incidents.

The UK headquarters of leading international lawyers Gates & Partners, which focuses specifically on aviation law, has this month launched a new set of initiatives to support the industry's understanding of complex legal and regulatory issues within the aviation sector. The latest event was held in early November and aimed to bring banks and insurance companies together to discuss the intricacies of aviation insurance practice. The free one day seminar aimed to simplify insurance terminology and explained how the aviation insurance market works.

Presented by a panel of renowned experts from the brokerage, adjustment and underwriting insurance market the seminar covered a range of issues. "One of the key outcomes was the confirmation that insurance companies can not pay out for incidents that occur on illegal charters, precisely because the incident occurs during an illegal act," states Aoife O'Sullivan, partner at Gates. "With an aircraft financier loaning up to 70% value of an aircraft this has wide reaching implications for the industry and reflects the need for this type of knowledge sharing network." The idea for the series of workshops arose as a result of discussions between delegates at the EBAA conference in Vienna where it became apparent the sector would be better served by financiers and insurers working more closely.

Delegates attending the seminar included banks, financiers, underwriters, brokers, private owners and operators of business aircraft. "We are extremely pleased with how this seminar went and have had feedback from as far away as Canada and the USA. It provided a great platform to tackle a difficult subject. We are particularly focussed on using the industry knowledge we gain from working with a wide spectrum of clients to channel expertise and be more than a faceless law firm. There is a lot of valuable know-how to be gained from bringing industry experts together."

The hosting of these seminars is part of an on-going strategy from Gates & Partners that aims to provide solutions for those operating in the aviation environment and hopes to de-mystify some of the more complex challenges faced on a day to day basis. "We also want to generate active discussion amongst industry executives about other themes. For example we are currently working with the BBGA on exploring ways of managing the Europe VAT issue, and are looking at the implications of the recently introduced ETS scheme" continues O'Sullivan. "Aviation is a industry but Gates continues to try and encourage the sector to actually resolve issues themselves. Through activities such as chairing the annual Future of Business Jets conference and creating our own seminars, such as the recent Risk Management day-conference in Dubai held in conjunction with the Middle East Business Aviation Association, we hope to make the industry act, rather than just discuss and debate."

The first insurance seminar was completely oversubscribed and a subsequent workshop will take place in early 2012 in London. For furhter information please contact Linda Leitch:

lleitch@gatesandpartners.com

www.gatesandpartners.com