Aviation insurance: all risks and war risks cover

AerCap Ireland Ltd v AIG Europe SA and Others [2025] EWHC 1430 (Comm) is a long-awaited and indeed very lengthy judgment on claims by aircraft owners who had leased them to Russian airlines and were unable to recover them by reason of Russian regulations made by way of response to sanctions imposed by Western nations following the Russian invasion of Ukraine

A number of owners were involved, each of whom had all risks and war risks insurance. The all risks covers excluded war risks, so the questions before Butcher J was whether the all risks insurers were liable and, if so, whether that liability was removed because the claims were covered by the war risks policies.