Back to glossaryTransport

Aircraft hull insurance

Cover for physical damage to the aircraft itself, in flight and on the ground, written on an agreed value basis alongside a separate war cover.

Definition

Aircraft hull insurance covers physical damage to the airframe, its engines and its equipment, whether the event occurs in flight, while taxiing or on the ground. It is written on an agreed value basis, meaning the value is fixed at inception and is no longer open to argument at the time of loss, a solution imposed by a thin secondhand market in which adversarial valuation would be endless. The deductible applies only to partial damage and falls away on a total loss, so that a destroyed aircraft is settled at full value, while spare parts are covered under a separate section. The decisive point is what is not covered: clause AVN 48B excludes war, hijacking, confiscation and acts of terrorism, perils sent instead to a hull war cover placed in another market, on other terms and with a cancellation notice of a few days. The problem solved is that of very costly single assets whose destruction is rare but total, and whose loss experience can only be pooled across a worldwide fleet.

Example

More than five hundred airliners leased to Russian carriers were stranded in Russia after February 2022, the decree of March 14, 2022 authorizing their local re-registration. Lessors claimed roughly ten billion dollars, and the London trial of 2024 and 2025 turned largely on the boundary between all risks hull cover and hull war cover, each pointing to the other.

Related terms
Also known as

hull all risks aviation, corps d'avion