UK court rules in favour of lessors in court case over jets 'lost' in Russia
LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - London's High Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of aircraft leasing companies in a multi-billion-dollar legal dispute over jets retained in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The world's largest aircraft lessor AerCap (AER.N), opens new tab and several other firms had sued insurers including AIG (AIG.N), opens new tab, Lloyd's, Chubb (CB.BN), opens new tab and Swiss Re (SRENH.S), opens new tab in one of the biggest insurance disputes ever heard in London.
The London lawsuit had focused on almost 150 jets and some engines, previously with a total value of up to $4.7 billion, though settlements – including on the first day of trial in October and subsequently – have whittled the numbers down.
Judge Christopher Butcher said in a summary of his ruling that the aircraft were lost and "that loss occurred on 10 March 2022, when a piece of Russian legislation banned the export of aircraft and aircraft equipment from Russia".
The judge added that insurers were not prevented by EU or U.S. sanctions from indemnifying the claimants for the loss of aircraft which had been leased to Russian airlines.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
14 minutes ago
- Reuters
Britain ready to implement US tariff deal, trade minister says
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - Britain is ready to implement its side of a tariff deal with the United States and is hopeful for a proclamation from U.S. President Donald Trump to put the agreement into effect in the coming days, trade minister Jonathan Reynolds said on Thursday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump on May 8 agreed to reduce tariffs on UK imports of cars and steel to the U.S., with Britain agreeing to lower tariffs on beef and ethanol, but implementation of the deal has been delayed. Reynolds met U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday and discussed the implementation of the deal. Asked on Thursday if there would be an update by the end of the week, Reynolds said he was "very hopeful". "We're ready to go, and as soon as the president and the White House are ready to go on their side, we'll implement (our) part of the deal," Reynolds told reporters. Reynolds said he would issue a government order known as a statutory instrument to implement the changes to reciprocal tariffs. Officials said that the update on implementation was likely to come early next week. One of the details to be ironed out before the deal can be implemented is steel quotas. Reynolds added that he wanted to make sure the tariff reductions applied to every bit of the UK steel industry, as the U.S. finalises quotas that will place supply chain requirements on British steel exports to the United States. The bioethanol industry has warned its future is under threat, with Associated British Foods (ABF.L), opens new tab deciding on the fate of a plant later this month. Reynolds acknowledged the deal could increase competition but said the industry was already struggling. "We are very sensitive to the ethanol issue... (but) they're losing a lot of money already," Reynolds said, adding regulatory tweaks could help, but that for financial support: "any intervention I make has to be a clear route to profitability." "So there are much wider issues for these partners than just the U.S. trade deal."
BBC News
14 minutes ago
- BBC News
Unclear when Northern's reduced Sunday rail service will end
A rail service says it is unclear when it will stop a reduced Sunday service it has been running since late last year. Northern has been running fewer services in north-west England every Sunday since 22 December 2024, because it has not been able to find enough conductors to work those firm's managing director Tricia Williams told a Transport for the North Meeting on Tuesday the reduced service was "not what we all want" but did offer customers "predictability".Northern said it was still negotiating with National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) over Sunday working. RMT confirmed discussions were ongoing. The firm has previously said the problem it faced on Sundays was it was contractually outside the working week for North West services include routes from Barrow and Windermere to Manchester Airport, and from Barrow to Williams said the reduced service currently relied on volunteers. "The success criteria for us is about achieving a truly seven-day railway," she said. She said the aim for the company was to ensure no more than 2% of services were being cancelled by the end of 2027 and that 90% of trains arrived within three minutes of said it was conducting "detailed discussions with Northern Trains to bring together working practices for conductors from three legacy companies into a single, modern agreement"."The talks aim to ensure consistency, reflect advances in technology, and support reliable services throughout the week", a spokesperson proposals would be subject to government approval, they follows Northern being issued a breach notice by the Department for Transport (DfT) in July 2024 for cancelling too many trains.
BreakingNews.ie
26 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary receives pay-package of €3.83m for 2025
Ryanair chief executive, Michael O'Leary, this year received a pay-package of €3.83 million that included bonus payments of €600,000. That is according to the 2025 annual report by Ryanair, which shows that Mr O'Leary received the maximum bonus possible of €600,000, or 50 per cent of basic pay under his contract, as Ryanair recorded pre-tax profits of €1.78 billion on the back of revenues climbing to €13.94 billion. Advertisement The airline achieved the revenues as passenger numbers increased by nine per cent to a record 200 million for the first time. Mr O'Leary's pay package was made up of basic pay of €1.2 million, a bonus payment of €600,000 and share options of €2.03 million. A note attached to the accounts states that the €2.03 million component is through the company recording a technical non-cash accounting charge in relation to share options granted to Mr O'Leary. The note states that no such payment was made to Mr O'Leary and the share options remain unvested. Advertisement At the end of May, Mr O'Leary qualified for share options worth more than €100 million and the 64 year old will have to stay at Ryanair until the end of July 2028 to collect the share options. The annual report shows that Ryanair's Irish based revenues last year totalled €757.5 million which were down four per cent on the Irish revenues of €791 million. The airline's Irish business accounted for 5.4 per cent of overall revenues as Italy was the airline's most lucrative market at €2.96 billion, followed by Spain at €2.47 billion and UK revenues of €2.04 billion. In his message to shareholders, Mr O'Leary said that 'our home market in Dublin is also being hampered by failed regulation and political inaction'. Advertisement He said that at Dublin airport over €320 million has been invested in a new 2nd runway, which doubles the capacity of Ireland's main airport from 32 million to over 60 million passengers per annum. He said that "Dublin's airlines are prevented from using this growth capacity, because an 18-year-old planning restriction artificially caps Dublin Airport traffic at 32 million p.a, over fears (in 2007), that road access around Dublin Airport would be 'overwhelmed' at this volume of passengers". He said that Ireland's newly elected Government committed to removing this outdated traffic cap, yet three months later no action has been taken. He said: 'Only in Ireland would we allow this vital access infrastructure to be built, but then refuse our airlines and citizens the ability to use it, due to bureaucratic failure to abolish an absurd and outdated planning restriction. This is a clear example of the sort of regulatory failure, which the Draghi Report has encouraged Europe to reform and remove.' Advertisement The annual report also makes reference to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) here launching an inquiry into Ryanair's booking verification process last October. The report states that Ryanair has engaged with the DPC "explaining that its verification requirement is designed to ensure compliance with safety and security protocols, and that the process of verification fully complies with the requirements of the GDPR". The report states that the inquiry is expected to take at least one year "and while Ryanair is confident in its position, the DPC may ultimately find that the verification process has not fully complied with the GDPR, which could lead to the imposition of a substantial fine". In his message to shareholders, Mr O'Leary says that 'the biggest medium term challenge we face, remains the risk to Boeing deliveries'. Advertisement He said: 'While the final units of our 210 Boeing 737-8200 order were contracted to deliver in December 2024, at our March 2025 year end Boeing left us short 34 of these deliveries. He said: 'We got five more in April but the remaining 29 are not expected to deliver until the second half of FY26, hopefully in time for summer 2026. Ireland Martin says defamation reforms will happen 'quickl... Read More "The quality and timeliness of Boeing deliveries has recently improved under their new management, but this needs to be reflected in rising monthly production if Boeing is to erase its current delivery backlog.' Mr O'Leary states that over the next decade Ryanair hope to buy 300 more Boeing MAX-10 aircraft, to grow to 300m guests per annum and to create approximately 10,000 new jobs. The aggregate amount of compensation paid by Ryanair to its key management personnel was €14.7 million including a €4.2 million non-cash technical accounting charge in relation to unvested share options. In the 12 months to the end of March, the airline employed an average of 27,076 as staff costs totalled €1.75 billion.
