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CCH Offers One-stop Commercial Aircraft Transactions

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., February 23, 2001) – Attorneys and others involved in the multi-faceted legal and business aspects of aviation can now find the primary source materials they need all in one place. Commercial Aircraft Transactions, from CCH INCORPORATED (CCH), is a two-volume, loose-leaf reference that brings together the array of laws and regulations involved in the complicated business of registering, buying, selling, leasing, securitizing and insuring commercial aircraft. (For more information or to subscribe to Commercial Aircraft Transactions, call 1-800-449-6435 or visit the CCH Online Store at http://business.cch.com/onlinestore.)

According to Sharon Schlatterer, marketing manager for CCH’s Business and Finance Group, Commercial Aircraft Transactions ties together the important legal issues that apply to this unique area of law.

"Aircraft transactions often involve a unique mixture of state, federal and international law," Schlatterer said. "The fact that the assets involved are both very valuable and, by nature, mobile, adds new dimensions to the concerns faced in their sale, lease and financing. Now, practitioners won’t have to hunt through dozens of disparate sources to find what they need."

Comprehensive Array of Materials

Author William H. Callaway, Jr. has brought together, in ten divisions, a comprehensive array of primary source materials relating to all aspects of aircraft transactions. Prefacing each division is a brief, incisive introduction pointing out the main features of the topic.

An Overview division summarizes the basic principles of the subjects that are explored at length in the rest of the work and provides the text of the Chicago Convention as the basis for transactional practice in the field. The division on Registration Considerations contains the statutory and regulatory materials that govern the registration of aircraft within the United States, including pertinent provisions of the U.S. Code and the Code of Federal Regulations, along with FAA legal opinions.

The division on Sales Transactions reproduces the relevant sections of the Uniform Commercial Code and points out the special issues that are normally addressed in aircraft sales agreements. Similarly, the division on Leasing Transactions contains an extensive checklist of items to be included in agreements as well as the relevant UCC sections.

The division on Financing Transactions contains extensive materials both on the structural considerations of such deals – including the OECD Agreement on the Large Aircraft Sector, use of the Delaware LLC Act and the New York Trust Indentures Act – and taking and perfecting security interests, both under the UCC and the Geneva convention. The Draft Unidroit Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment is also reproduced. The pertinent provisions of Bankruptcy Code and related legislative histories and court decisions make up the Bankruptcy division, along with the leading cases under Section 1110 that help frame the debate on this "lightning rod" for litigation.

A thorough division on Tax Considerations includes a schedule of tax treaties in force, the Model Dual Tax Treaty with its official Treasury Department explanation and the pertinent provisions of Internal Revenue Code and associated regulations.

The division on Insurance Considerations includes a sample certificate of insurance, a sample certificate of re-insurance, a broker’s letter of undertaking and Lloyd’s Aviation Underwriters Association standard aviation policy forms and clauses.

The division on Documentation Considerations focuses on issues such as choice of law, choice of forum, designation of agent for service of process, waiver of sovereign immunity, arbitration and the procedures required for due execution of transaction documents. It contains pertinent provisions of New York General Obligations Law and American Bar Association guidelines on third party "closing" opinions and UCC secured interest opinions.

The division on Cross-Border Enforcement includes the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the Convention on Unification of Rules on the Precautionary Attachment of Aircraft, the text of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Uniform Foreign Money Judgments Recognition Act and selected provisions of the New York Civil Practice Laws and Rules.

Quarterly reports will keep subscribers to Commercial Aircraft Transactions up to date in the field.

Finding devices include a thorough topical index, a table of cases, a chronological table of FAA legal opinions, reference tables for the U.S. Code, CFR, state statutes, international laws, uniform or model laws and a selective bibliography.

About the Author

William H. Callaway, Jr. has more than two decades of experience in aircraft and other cross-border, asset-based financial transactions. He has represented airlines, financial institutions and export credit agencies in complex transactions in various parts of the world, including recent transactions involving airlines and other borrowers located in the Near East, Europe, Central America, South America, Africa, the CIS and the Far East. Mr. Callaway also regularly represents and advises foreign and domestic clients before the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration on a broad range of aviation-related matters. He is currently a partner with the Washington, DC law firm of Zuckert, Scoutt and Rasenberger, LLP.

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