Aviation war risk

In March 2022, more than four hundred aircraft leased to Russian airlines by Western lessors stayed in Russia after the lease terminations required by EU sanctions. Moscow re-registered them. On June 11, 2025, the Commercial Court in London put the loss on the war risks underwriters rather than the all risks market ([2025] EWHC 1430 (Comm)). Aviation war risk forms a market of its own, with its own underwriters, capacity and terms, because the ordinary hull policy excludes it. It covers destruction of the aircraft by act of war, terrorism or hostile fire. It also covers events involving no physical destruction: confiscation, nationalization, requisition by the state of registry, or prolonged deprivation of possession beyond a waiting period, typically twelve months. Lessors invoked that deprivation cover for aircraft stranded abroad without being destroyed, and the boundary with all risks cover became the question in the file. Rating follows the map of excluded areas and is revised during the year. The contract provides a seven day cancellation notice, which makes capacity reversible. The market exists for a peril that is not random in the actuarial sense, correlated with a state's political decision and therefore impossible to pool like an accident.