Irell & Manella LLP’s aviation group has extensive experience in representing aircraft owners, airlines, charter operators, fixed base operators, aircraft manufacturers, aircraft parts distributors and aircraft maintenance and service providers operating in both the public and private sector.  Our attorneys include a former senior vice president and general counsel of AirCal Inc., a major regional airline that was acquired by American Airlines, and an officer and director of an aviation engine and parts brokerage company and of a major fixed base operation.

The firm’s broad experience in representing a diverse cross-section of the aviation community enables the group to understand the perspectives of each party involved in an aviation law issue.  In addition to having the benefit of an intimate understanding of the important goals of the parties to an aviation law issue, our group is familiar with the regulatory and legal context in which those goals are sought, including among its members experts in the areas of tax, insurance, securities, labor and environmental law, and litigation, each of whom has substantial experience applying his particular expertise to the unique issues raised in the aviation context.  The inclusion of these “related field” experts in our aviation group reflects our belief that representation of aviation clients requires an interdisciplinary capability to identify and address creatively and practically issues that are inherent in the ownership and operation of aircraft and aviation businesses and that could visit a catastrophic effect on an unsuspecting person or entity that bore the risk without advance planning.  Our interdisciplinary approach allows our attorneys to craft results that optimize the advantages for our clients.

The aviation group’s work has included the representation of clients in connection with the purchase and sale of well over 100 new and used business and commercial aircraft with an aggregate value totaling several billion dollars, including both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, plus nearly ten dozen fractional aircraft interests.  Our attorneys have negotiated countless agreements regarding the financing, outfitting, management, insuring, lease and charter of aircraft.  The broad range of transactions with which we have been involved includes:

• Purchases of aircraft from all major aircraft manufacturers;

• Counseling numerous Forbes 400 and Fortune 500 clients regarding the ownership and operation of their aircraft, including advice regarding issues arising under aviation law, federal income and excise tax law, state sales and use tax and property tax law and federal securities law (including tax and securities issues affecting companies and their senior executives on account of the executives’ non-business use of the aircraft);

• The acquisition, financing, outfitting and structuring of the ownership and operation of multiple Boeing 767, 757 and 747 aircraft and Boeing Business Jets under FAR Parts 91, 125 or 135 on behalf of different non-airline clients, including obtaining favorable rulings from tax authorities and deviation letters from the FAA;

• Acquisition and structuring of the ownership of fractional interests in aircraft operated under the NetJets, Flexjet, Flight Options and Citation Shares programs, as well as acquisitions of flight time under jet card programs (e.g., Marquis Jet, Flexjet Membership, Jet Pass, Vector Card, Jet Direct);

• The leasing of several Boeing 747 aircraft for a start-up airline;

• Acquisition of over two dozen vintage World War I and World War II aircraft, many of which were acquired from vendors outside of the United States, thereby presenting complex issues under laws regulating the export and import of munitions;

• Importation into, and exportation from, the United States of numerous aircraft on behalf of United States and foreign clients;

• Sales of all manner of aircraft and fractional interests in aircraft;

• The sale of a large fixed base operator to AMR Coombs;

• Numerous three- and four-party tax-deferred (including “reverse”) exchanges of aircraft and fractional interests; and

• The sale and lease of commercial and private jet engines and aircraft parts.

Further evidencing the breadth of our experience, we also represented a client in establishing and financing the venture that won the Ansari X prize for the first privately-financed venture to put a pilot and a specified payload into suborbital space twice within two weeks.

Our firm has represented a start-up aircraft manufacturer from its inception, including structuring its organization, handling multiple rounds of equity and debt financing, negotiating critical agreements with vendors and customers, arranging for the protection of its intellectual property and defending its intellectual property against infringement, and successfully concluding litigation brought by and against the company.

In addition, we have represented aviation clients in disputes with governmental and private parties, including insurance and other disputes with regard to damage to private and commercial jet aircraft, tax disputes with federal and state tax authorities, and litigation regarding airline access rights at airports throughout the western United States as well as litigation arising from refurbishments of private aircraft.

For more information, please contact Rob Zeitinger.