An aircraft repossession is never a cheap option and is not favoured. Often an aircraft might be impounded by the airport for unpaid fees (landing for example). It is why where possible if there is another way then it will be explored and options will depend on customer and market.
For example in COVID, most lease agreements could not be honoured as the airlines did not have an income. It is not in the lessors interest to take the aircraft or they have to maintain them with no customers at that time. That was a key reason why many leases went onto “power by the hour” andthis allowed airlines to pause the expensive repayments, but remain responsible for storage and maintenance. It also meant that the lessor did not get the payments and maintenance reserves as before.
In the event that you have to get an aircraft repossessed then there can be quite a process to this and one of the top priorities is to establish contact with airline personnel and build a relationship so that you can retrieve personal email addresses and phone numbers. This could be very important in the event your contacts access to company email is revoked by the airline.
Your target will be to operate the aircraft to another location and so the Technical Records are an essential consideration, are they onsite or located in storage.
Can you get a signed and dated STATUS / STATEMENT List? This can sometimes be offered by a
liquidator for example, but at a premium. Can you confirm title Engines / APU and Landing Gears are on the asset or gain awareness of what is installed. It is possible that your asset might have engines and or loan items belonging to another
lessor such as an engine.
Is there any Robbery of components on your asset, what’s the current hours/cycles and
maintenance status?
There are many different considerations and based on the information that you gather then you can look to ferry the aircraft on a permit to new location that your lessor favours and or controls where an aircraft is commonly re-registered.
Why not follow us on LinkedIn for more or consider one of the courses we offer HERE