ISTAT Jetrader - Winter 2022 - 23

the way documents are drafted so you
can have assurances the activities and
actions by the controlling party allow
you to respond and allow for a fair and
commercially reasonable solution that
doesn't advantage one party to the
detriment of others. "
Wool provided an update on the
over 450 foreign-owned aircraft
ordered by Russian officials to fly to
and be registered in Russia, despite
their remaining validly registered in
other countries. These Russia actions,
and other Russian legislation, " clearly
violate both the Chicago Convention and
the Cape Town Convention, " he said.
The complex process of addressing
insurance cover for such aircraft is
well underway. AWG continues its work
in working with key governments on
permitting insurance payments and
wind-down and unwind arrangements.
AWG also works on the framework
for international airworthiness
rehabilitation of these aircraft, to apply
if such aircraft are transferred to nonRussian
parties. Wool commented on
the critique that treaties did not prevent
Russian action adverse to the interests
of financiers and lessors by saying that
" while there is an outer limit to what
any treaty can do - there will always
be a residual risk elements in decisionmaking
- the Russian case in the
exception that stresses the importance
of rule of law. "
In short, the Cape Town
Convention addresses legal risk and
provides incentives to comply with
international law, but, like any other
treaty, cannot eliminate pure political
risk. Wool concluded by saying that
the international legal developments
over the past months will continue to
increase pressure both on Russia and
countries through which aircraft travel
to comply with both the Chicago and
Cape Town Conventions, including on
aircraft repossession.
Regional Aircraft
Rod Sheridan, chairman of Sheridan
Aviation, moderated the next panel,
which included Mark Dunnachie, head
of commercial for Europe and North
America at ATR; Miguel Falcon Martin,
managing director at Air Nostrum;
Cesar Augusto Souto Pereira, vice
president of sales and marketing for
Europe and Central Asia at Embraer;
and Kathleen Steven, director of
structured finance at DHC.
The panel discussed the topics of
pilot availability, supply chain issues
and fleet. On the pilot shortage,
Dunnachie touted the resilience of the
industry. " If we can get through COVID,
I think we can solve the pilot problem, "
he said.
Periera had a different perspective
on the topic. " We're not going to find
a solution based on what we know, "
he said. " We need to think about it
strategically. Regional aviation can
work as an entry level for pilots.
We hire pilots, train them and then
lease them out to airlines. They gain
experience, we make money and
they come to us with experience. It's
an outside-the-box idea. Making a
business out of it. "
Periera also said Embraer is
" seriously thinking about launching a
turboprop sooner rather than later. It's
difficult to select an engine these days
because they are so good. Regardless
of the choice we make, the economics
will be there because they all support
the targets we do. "
Lessor CEOs
The last panel of the day was
moderated by Douglas Runte, managing
director and head of aviation research
at Deutsche Bank. The panel included
Andy Cronin, CEO designate of Avolon;
James Meyler, CEO of ORIX Aviation;
John Plueger, CEO and president of
Air Lease Corporation; Firoz Tarapore,
CEO of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise;
and Otto Verhoeff, partner and aviation
president of Castlelake.
The discussion was structured
around a series of audience polling
questions, which ran the gamut
from global air traffic recovery
predictions to which manufacturer
has the best production narrowbody
passenger family.
Runte asked Plueger what his
company is seeing for relative demand
for narrowbody/widebody, newer versus
middle-aged. " Single-aisle demand
is very robust. We've placed a huge
amount of our backlog, " Plueger said.
" Our MAX program has accelerated
significantly. We took more MAX
orders last quarter than neo. The new
widebody market, which is what we
operate in, has shown tremendous
momentum in the last 30/60/90 days.
There's great and justified concern
about manufacturer production rates
on not just single but twin aisle as
well. We have less than 10 widebody
aircraft waiting to be placed in our
entire orderbook. We're all talking about
COVID and the recovery, but a lot of the
topics now are things that were topics
pre-COVID. The dialogue is shifting
away from COVID and more mainstream
problems this industry has faced before
and done quite well to make it through. "
Cronin noted that Avolon has seen
more appetite in the investor market
this year to invest in the A330neo.
" We believe that will have broad-based
acceptance by the investor market as
a leading-edge widebody. It's taking
longer than we would have liked, but it's
getting there, " he said.
Networking Events
There were many opportunities to
experience Marrakech and meet with
other ISTAT EMEA delegates at this
year's event, including a walking tour
of the city, the Welcome Reception,
Women@ISTAT Networking Reception,
ISTAT Rising Executives Event, Tuesday's
breakfast roundtable on " Sharing Our
Collective D&I Perspectives and Defining
Experiences, " and the final networking
event at the beautiful Dar Soukkar.
* WIN TER 2022 * 23
ISTAT Jetrader - Winter 2022

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