Aircraft Finance

Holland & Knight is an international leader in aviation finance, advising clients in the purchase and sale of aircraft, engines and parts worldwide. We typically complete more than 250 aviation transactions annually, and during the past five years, we have worked with clients in more than 70 countries on the acquisition, financing, leasing, and structuring of aircraft and helicopter transactions. Our clients include nine of the world's 10 largest aircraft leasing companies, major U.S. and international airlines, investment funds, investment banks, corporate jet owners, government guarantors, high-net-worth individuals and other key players in the wider aviation industry ecosystem.

We pride ourselves on our responsiveness in a fast-paced environment where deals typically involve parties in multiple and disparate time zones. With lawyers dedicated to this practice on both the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, as well as in London and Latin America, we work as a single, connected team, placing client relationships first.

Our Experience

Holland & Knight's aircraft finance lawyers work with prominent players in every sector of aviation finance, including most major airlines and leasing companies, major banks and private equity funds. We regularly act on novel and high-profile transactions, and have a deep familiarity with the ever-evolving structures and products that are used in the industry. We provide our clients with practical solutions to complex issues and conflicting positions.

Examples of leasing, sales, debt financing and securitization transactions we have advised on recently include:

• American depositary receipt and other capital markets transactions
• commercial-paper-funded and long-term debt
• engine and aircraft lease portfolio securitization transactions, including asset-backed securitizations and enhanced equipment trust certificate transactions
• export credit, including financing supported by the Export-Import Bank of the United States, European export credit agencies, the Brazilian Development Bank and Export Development Canada
• foreign and U.S. double-dip tax lease structures
• foreign government guaranteed financings
• freighter conversion financings
• Japanese operating leases, including those with call options
• lease portfolio acquisitions and sales
• new orders of aircraft from all major manufacturers
• nonpayment credit risk insurance products (Aircraft Finance Insurance Consortium and Balthazar)
• portfolio sale and leasebacks
• progress payment financings
• Rule 144A placements and private debt and equity offerings
• traditional mortgage financings
• U.S. tax-based leveraged leases

Commitment to the Aviation Industry

Our participation in every aspect of the aviation industry makes us knowledgeable partners for our clients. Our attorneys are leaders in key organizations that support aviation finance and transactions. Every day, we talk to people on all sides of aircraft transactions around the globe, whether it's about the impact of COVID-19, Libor alternatives, parked 737s, nascent environmental regulations, Brexit, international money markets, political developments and international tensions, changing regulatory regimes or other uncertainties that affect global finance. As a result, we provide our clients with the information they need to make sound business decisions and to select the most suitable financing and leasing structures.

Search any of the prominent aviation organizations, and you are likely to find a Holland & Knight attorney who holds a leadership position. We have long been participants in shaping the Cape Town Treaty, and three of our lawyers sit on the legal advisory panel executive committee of the Aviation Working Group. These are not just honorary positions; our lawyers lead groups that are analyzing recent Cape Town legal activity and are providing annotation to Cape Town's official commentary. Our colleagues at the American Bar Association (ABA) have called upon two of our attorneys in the past to chair the organization's Aircraft Financing Subcommittee. Our attorneys also are frequent lecturers at the annual Euromoney North America and Latin America Schools of Aviation Finance.

If you have attended an aviation conference in the past year, you probably had the opportunity to see one of our attorneys on a panel. We spoke at aviation conferences in London, Oslo, Mexico City, Nairobi, Copenhagen and New York, among other cities. We commit to all of these activities to gain the latest knowledge for our clients about this complex industry.

Aviation Bankruptcy and Workouts

In collaboration with our bankruptcy and litigation teams, our aviation lawyers frequently represent secured lenders, lessors, trustees, agents and other creditors and parties-in-interest in workouts, restructurings and repossessions of aircraft in the United States and abroad. We also have extensive experience counseling many of these clients in insolvency proceedings involving U.S. bankruptcies of domestic and foreign airlines, manufacturers, lessees and other parties in the aviation industry, including in plenary cases under Chapter 7 or 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, ancillary cases in aid of a foreign insolvency proceeding under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code and regarding issues involving U.S. law arising in cases pending in foreign jurisdictions. Our attorneys review and structure transactions to address potential bankruptcy issues, advise clients in pre-bankruptcy planning and strategy, advocate for them during pending cases and represent them in insolvency-related litigation, including recharacterization and avoidance actions.

A Go-To Firm for Aviation Finance in Latin America

Holland & Knight's financial practices have a strong presence in Latin America. We have more than 170 attorneys firmwide who are fluent in Spanish or Portuguese, as well as offices in Mexico City and Bogotá, both supported by more than 160 attorneys in our Miami office. We regularly act for a variety of lessors across from all the major Latin American carriers as well as many smaller operators. We are well versed in the jurisdictional nuances familiar to the key in-house teams and enjoy excellent relationships with a wide variety of leading local counsel in the aviation space, all of which has contributed to our reputation as a go-to firm for Latin American aviation transactions.

Recognized Leadership

The Chambers USA, UK and Global guides, as well as The Legal 500 rankings for the U.S. and United Kingdom, rank our aviation practice and its attorneys as among the best in the world. Chambers USA recognizes four of our aviation finance attorneys and sources say, "Holland & Knight is a fantastic firm with a very strong aviation finance team. They're very practical, take a common-sense approach and are knowledgeable of the aviation and asset finance space." Firmwide, we are supported by more than 200 practices, including related regulatory, tax, banking, corporate, securitization, litigation and bankruptcy. Our ability to collaborate with lawyers in related disciplines keeps deals on track and provides clients with the comprehensive representation that comes from having one team that can advise on all aspects of a matter.