Airline restructurings have always been large and complicated processes. With high-value, movable assets and secured creditors and lessors in multiple jurisdictions, extensive regulation, unique constituencies including trade organisations, and an overriding objective of airlines maintaining their customer bases if they are to have any hope of successfully emerging as viable enterprises, airline restructurings provide significant challenges for debtors, other stakeholders and their respective advisors.

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the aviation industry, with wide-ranging implications for operations and negotiations during restructuring proceedings.  Post-restructuring considerations figure heavily in the planning and implementation stages of an airline restructuring, given the prevailing uncertainties as the world recovers from the pandemic and airlines and their creditors attempt to determine what the “new normal” will be for air travel as travel restrictions are gradually lifted across the globe.

In this webinar, we will consider airline restructurings from the perspective of four different jurisdictions. We will discuss jurisdictional and cultural aspects and challenges, as well as issues unique to airline insolvencies and restructurings, as well as examining how COVID-19 has changed the normal playbook for airline restructurings.