Five international lessors have won a landmark case in the UK High Court and will be able to claim up to USD4.5 billion in insurance claims for aircraft stuck in Russia after March 2022. Justice Butcher ruled on June 11, 2025, that the claims fell under the "war risks" insurance policies.
The trial combined claims covering 147 aircraft, 16 standalone engines, and one other piece of equipment, brought by AerCap, DAE Capital, Merx Aviation Finance, Falcon 2019-1 Aircraft 3 Limited, and Genesis Leasing. Initially, KDAC Aircraft Leasing was also part of the proceedings but settled with the insurers independently during the course of the trial. Ireland's AerCap owned the bulk of the assets claimed - 116 aircraft and 15 engines.
The affected insurers and reinsurers are AIG, Lloyd's, Chubb, and Swiss Re.
The court concluded that a Russian government resolution from March 9, 2022, effectively banned Russian airlines from returning their aircraft to Western lessors and rendered them lost to the owners. The judge opined that this was covered by the war risks insurance policies as it took place in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February. It was thus caused by the government's act rather than by Russian airlines' commercial decisions.
The insurance falls under contingent rather than possessed cover as the lessors were not physically in possession of the assets.
The ruling itself does not award any damages but allows the lessors to proceed with their claims against the insurers. AerCap said in a press release that it was due a USD1 billion payout by July 2, 2025.
Scramble for recovery
The case history included in the 230-page ruling provides a detailed description of the lessors' scramble in February and March 2022 to recover their aircraft from Russia. Responding to EU sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion, the lessors began sending grounding and relocation notices to their Russian lessees on February 28, 2022. At that time, AerCap alone had aircraft placed with Aeroflot, Alrosa Aviakompania, AirBridgeCargo, Atran, Aurora, Azur Air, Royal Flight, Ikar (Russian Federation), Nordwind Airlines, Red Wings Airlines, Rossiya, S7 Airlines, smartavia, Ural Airlines, Yamal Airlines, and Yakutia Airlines. NordStar was involved through its lease from Genesis, and UTair had aircraft leased from DAE Capital.
As it became increasingly clear that the Russian government was intent on preventing the airlines from returning the aircraft and imposing mandatory reregistration in the country (given that the aircraft were previously registered predominantly in Bermuda), the lessors attempted to repossess aircraft outside the country.
For example, AerCap managed to repossess B737-800s (msn 28247 and msn 34970) leased to Nordwind and Royal Flight in Türkiye on March 2-3, and an A319-100 (msn 2243) leased to Aurora in Taiwan on March 3. DAE Capital also managed to recover a few aircraft, but the vast majority of claimed assets remained in Russia and, as the country's airlines ceased to deploy them internationally, became lost to the lessors.
A number of other lessors filed lawsuits in Ireland, seeking around USD2.6 billion in war risk payouts from insurers. Most of those claims have been settled ahead of the court ruling.
