London's High Court has ordered the British capital to arbitrate the legal battle between leasing companies and insurers in the dispute over the seizure of aircraft by Russia [4]. The dispute concerns insurance coverage for 200 aircraft worth 10 billion USD.
In July 2023, 40 aircraft leasing companies, including AerCap, Aircastle, Avenue Capital, Carlyle Aviation Partners, FTAI Aviation and Merx Aviation, filed an application with the High Court for the dispute to be heard in London. For their part, some Lloyd's insurers and syndicates wanted the case to be heard in Russia. However, 35 insurers, including Swiss Re and Chubb, were opposed to this course of action, and agreed to hold the trial in London.
It should be noted that aeronautical leasing group AerCap has already managed to collect over 600 million USD from its insurers in the fourth quarter of 2023, bringing the total collected over the year to 1.3 billion USD. AerCap had initiated legal proceedings against AIG and Lloyd's of London in 2022.