Africa-Press – Mauritius. Lessors are lining up to launch legal action against dozens of insurance companies for a total of around USD6.5 billion as they try to pursue claims over losses linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters news agency reported.
The lawsuits tend to be against syndicates of law firms and are related to hundreds of aircraft stuck in Russia since Moscow’s invasion on February 24.
More than 400 Western-made and leased aircraft worth around USD10 billion have remained there since sanctions prompted President Vladimir Putin to sign a law enabling local carriers to move them to the Russian register.
According to the lessors, the mostly Airbus and Boeing aircraft are covered by insurance policies against war or theft.
As ch-aviation reported earlier this month, Avolon lodged a claim at Ireland’s High Court against a syndicate of 15 insurers led by Lloyd’s of London.
However, the insurance companies have argued that the jets are not damaged and may yet return to their owners in the future. Reuters listed eight claims that lessors have.
South African airline industry veteran Gidon Novick has rubbished reports he demanded ZAR1 billion rand (USD57.7 million) to merge Global Aviation Operations’ scheduled brand, Lift Airlines (LIFT), with South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R.
Tambo) as part of privatisation talks with the South African government, reports News24. Novick, who is a co-founder of LIFT, last week resigned from the board of the Takatso Consortium, the government’s preferred strategic equity partner for a 51% stake in SAA, citing a lack of transparency in the progress of the transaction and doubts over the consortium’s ability to raise the required ZAR3 billion (USD173 million) in operating capital for the national carrier.
He was responding to a November 21 front-page report in South Africa’s Business Times citing unnamed sources privy to the deal that there had been an initial understanding that LIFT and SAA would merge.
However, things reportedly turned sour when Novick and his business partners set an “unreasonably high price on their start-up airline and further demanded management control” of a semi-privatised SAA.
For More News And Analysis About Mauritius Follow Africa-Press
