Head of team: Ed Riley, general counsel

Team size: 30

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The Avolon legal team’s work over the past year has tracked aviation’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has happened at different times and with varying pace across the global industry.

The team has continued to manage the tail end of large and complex airline restructurings in this recovery, but we have also spooled up quickly to negotiate and execute many transactions with Avolon’s airline customers and trading counterparties.

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The imposition of sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine created legal issues for the aircraft leasing industry on an unprecedented scale. The Avolon legal team reacted swiftly in response to the many challenges involved, managing to successfully repossess an aircraft within 36 hours of the imposition of sanctions and working through the complex issues arising from the detention of aircraft by the Russian government. In addition to presenting issues with the airlines, the situation also led to Avolon making claims under its insurance policies and initiating litigation against its insurers in the Irish courts in November 2022. The magnitude of the challenges involved in the invasion’s impact required great teamwork between many members of the legal team and our colleagues across the Avolon business.

Has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities, and if so how?

Very much so. Our business is leasing commercial aircraft to airline customers around the world, so climate change and sustainability are big issues for all of us.

We believe the most impactful near-term action airlines can take to reduce carbon emissions is to operate the youngest, most fuel-efficient aircraft available to the market. At the end of 2022, 55% of our portfolio consisted of new technology aircraft and we remain on track to hit our target of a portfolio comprising 75% new technology aircraft by 2025.

We also continue to play a role as a thought leader and catalyst for progress on climate action measures. With Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) being a key lever to deliver on the industry’s commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it is vital to explore how production can be rapidly scaled. To that end, in 2022, we collaborated with four industry participants to conduct a feasibility study into the production of SAF in Ireland.