Marisa Chan

English schemes and the Cape Town Convention

The impact on the aviation sector of the COVID-19 pandemic and governmental restrictions on air travel and other movement controls has been severe and has resulted in a number of airline restructurings. This article examines the use by an airline of a scheme of arrangement under Pt 26 of the Companies Act 2006 (2006 Act), as a mechanism for effecting a compromise with certain of its creditors, and the interplay between a scheme and those creditors’ rights under the Cape Town Convention and associated Aircraft Protocol (CTC), as implemented in the UK by The International Interests in Aircraft Equipment (Cape Town Convention) Regulations 2015 (Regulations). These considerations arose in the decisions of the English court in MAB Leasing Limited.¹