Exporting An Aircraft From India Under The Cape Town Convention

The COVID-19 induced downturn in demand for air travel continues to cause liquidity challenges for Indian airlines. Given these issues, much like their peers globally, Indian airlines too have struggled to stay up to date with payment of aircraft lease rentals. In some cases, airlines are known to have defaulted on statutory dues like payment of GST as well.

Lessors who currently have exposure in India find themselves in a precarious situation wherein after exhausting all other options, they may have no choice but to enforce their rights under the Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol (to the extent they have been incorporated into local law).

India had in 2018 made a series of amendments and / or additions to its rules and regulations in relation to de-registration and export of an Aircraft on the basis of an Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisation (“IDERA”).