India's aviation sector has grown from approximately 50 million passengers in 2006 to over 150 million in 2023, making it the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world. The fleet that carries those passengers is financed and leased through an international structure centred on Ireland, with significant participation from Singapore, Hong Kong, and GCC lessors. Every lease, every repossession, every mortgage enforcement, and every insurance dispute involves Indian law and at least one foreign jurisdiction's law simultaneously. India's implementation of the Cape Town Convention — through the Protection and Enforcement of Interests in Aircraft Objects Act, 2005 — provides the international framework for creditor rights in aircraft objects, but its practical implementation through DGCA and the Indian courts requires specific expertise that most Indian law firms lack.
India's maritime sector handles over 1,400 million tonnes of cargo annually through its 13 major ports and hundreds of minor ports. The legal framework governing that cargo — the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act 2017, the Merchant Shipping Act, and the international conventions that these domestic statutes implement — is simultaneously one of the most technically demanding and most time-sensitive areas of Indian commercial law. A ship arrest application must be filed before the vessel leaves port. A cargo claim must be filed within the strict contractual limitation period. A bill of lading dispute must be analysed against the applicable law of the cargo contract — which may not be Indian law at all.
Goldschmidt Pallonji's Aviation and Maritime practice combines Indian procedural expertise — DGCA regulatory practice, Bombay and Chennai High Court admiralty practice, and NCLT restructuring for distressed airlines and shipping companies — with the international framework expertise that both sectors require. For cross-border aviation and maritime matters involving our corridor jurisdictions — Australia, Singapore, the UAE, and the UK — GP provides the bilateral legal analysis that makes the difference between a remedy and a lesson.
Aircraft leasing, Cape Town enforcement, DGCA regulatory, ship arrest, cargo claims, admiralty proceedings, and cross-border aviation and maritime disputes — from one practice with both sector capabilities.
Legal advice for aircraft lessors and airlines on Indian aircraft leasing transactions — DGCA registration and de-registration of aircraft on lease, Cape Town Convention International Registry filings for Indian-registered aircraft, Aircraft Objects Act 2005 remedies for lessor creditors. Aircraft Operating Lease Agreement review and negotiation from the perspective of both lessor and lessee under Indian law. Finance leases and mortgage-backed structures for aircraft financiers. GIFT City aviation leasing structures — India's Special Economic Zone-based leasing framework that makes India competitive with Ireland and Singapore as an aircraft leasing jurisdiction.
Learn More →Enforcement of Cape Town Convention remedies against Indian airlines — the self-help remedies available under the Aircraft Objects Act and the International Registry, and the court-based remedies before the High Courts. De-registration and export of aircraft from India following lease termination — the DGCA de-registration process, the export certificate of airworthiness, and the management of the airline's challenge to repossession. Emergency relief — injunctions preventing an airline from operating an aircraft pending resolution of the lease dispute, and applications to prevent de-registration of aircraft that are subject to competing security interests. The Go First and Kingfisher precedents — what Indian courts have decided about aircraft repossession in insolvency and what practitioners and lessors must know.
Learn More →DGCA regulatory advice for airlines, MRO providers, ground handling companies, and aviation training organisations — Aircraft Rules 1937 compliance, Air Operator Certificate requirements, DGCA Airworthiness Directives, and ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices implementation. Foreign airlines operating in India — Bilateral Air Services Agreement entitlements, code-share approval, and the regulatory framework for wet leases and ACMI arrangements. Aviation accident and incident investigations — legal representation before the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and advice on the interaction between the investigation process and subsequent civil and criminal liability.
Learn More →Ship arrest applications before the Bombay, Chennai, Calcutta, and Gujarat High Courts under the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act 2017 — for cargo claims, collision claims, damage to port infrastructure, unpaid crew wages, salvage, and general average. Emergency applications — a ship that is in Indian waters may need to be arrested within hours of a claimant discovering its presence. Release of arrested ships against provision of security. Counterclaims and wrongful arrest claims. Port authority disputes. Limitation of liability proceedings for collision and pollution claims under the Merchant Shipping Act.
Learn More →Cargo loss and damage claims — establishing liability under bills of lading subject to the Hague-Visby Rules, the Hamburg Rules, or the Rotterdam Rules. Short delivery, contamination, temperature excursion, and delay claims. The interaction between cargo insurance policies and carrier liability under the bill of lading. Freight disputes — demurrage, deviation, and general average contribution claims. Letter of Indemnity (LOI) disputes — the liability of a party that issues an LOI to obtain delivery against a forged or non-original bill of lading. For freight forwarders and logistics providers — FIATA standard trading conditions and the liability framework for multi-modal transport involving Indian ports.
Learn More →Ship mortgage and financing documentation under the Merchant Shipping Act — first preferred ship mortgages, mortgage enforcement, and the priority of maritime liens versus registered mortgages. Ship purchase and sale agreements — Memorandum of Agreement, flag change, and the management of Indian customs and port authority clearances. Bareboat charter and time charter party documentation. Charter party disputes — demurrage, off-hire, and performance claims under NYPE, Gencon, and Shelltime charter parties, subject to English law and London arbitration but requiring Indian court intervention for enforcement. Ship recycling — the Hazira and Alang ship recycling facilities and the regulatory framework for vessel demolition under the Hong Kong Convention.
Learn More →Australia-India trade has grown significantly under the AI-ECTA bilateral trade agreement — iron ore, coal, and agricultural commodities move south-north on bulk carriers, and containerised manufactured goods and pharmaceutical products move in the other direction. Australian shipowners and charterers operating vessels into Indian ports — Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Vizag, Haldia — face an Indian legal framework that is genuinely different from Australian maritime law. The Indian Admiralty Act 2017 provides arrest rights that may differ from Australian arrest jurisdiction. Indian port customs procedures and demurrage claims have specific Indian legal characteristics. And the enforcement of London arbitration awards in India requires specific procedures that Australian maritime lawyers are not routinely familiar with. GP provides the Indian maritime law interface that Australian shipping operators need for their Indian port calls and cargo operations.
The GCC carriers — Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, Air Arabia, Gulf Air, Oman Air, Kuwait Airways — together operate more flights to India than any other international aviation market. Each airline's India operations are governed by the bilateral Air Services Agreement between India and the relevant GCC country, the DGCA's regulatory requirements for foreign airline operations, and the ground handling, airport access, and code-share arrangements specific to each Indian airport. Regulatory changes — slot allocation decisions, ASA renegotiations, frequency cap changes — require immediate legal advice. Cargo operations from Indian airports, passenger compensation claims under Indian consumer law, and the customs treatment of in-transit cargo all require India-specific legal expertise. GP advises GCC airline clients on the full spectrum of their Indian operational requirements.
An Irish lessor with an aircraft on the ground in India after lease expiry faces a specific sequence of legal steps under the Cape Town Convention, the Aircraft Objects Act 2005, and DGCA procedures — all of which must be executed in the correct order to achieve repossession without triggering the airline's rights to challenge the repossession in court. The Aircraft Objects Act provides self-help remedies including de-registration, and the Cape Town Convention's International Registry provides priority of the lessor's interest over subsequent security interests. But the interaction with DGCA de-registration procedures, the airline's right to seek an injunction, and the potential application of IBC provisions if the airline is in financial distress all require management simultaneously. GP has handled aircraft repossession in India — with and without litigation — and advises lessors on the fastest legally defensible route from lease termination to aircraft export from India.
Aviation and maritime law are inherently international. Every significant matter involves at least two legal systems — Indian law and the law of the aircraft or vessel's flag state, lessor jurisdiction, or cargo contract. GP's corridor expertise — Ireland (the world's leading aircraft leasing jurisdiction), Singapore (a major aviation and maritime hub), Australia, the UAE, and the UK — means that when an Irish lessor needs to repossess an aircraft from an Indian airline, or when an Australian shipowner needs to arrest a vessel in Mumbai, GP understands both the Indian procedural framework and the overseas party's legal requirements. This bilateral understanding is the difference between a successful repossession and an expensive impasse.
The most commercially important remedies in aviation and maritime law are time-critical. A ship arrest must be filed before the vessel departs port. An aircraft repossession following lease termination must be managed before the airline takes steps to obstruct it. An emergency injunction to prevent de-registration must be obtained before the DGCA acts on the airline's request. GP maintains emergency response capability for aviation and maritime matters — the same 24/7 availability that GP maintains for cybersecurity incidents and tax searches applies equally to a vessel in Mumbai port or an aircraft on the ground at Delhi.
Aviation and maritime law share a common structure: international conventions, specialised domestic legislation, time-critical remedies, and the intersection of transport contracts with insurance, financing, and regulatory compliance. The lawyer who understands Cape Town Convention aircraft security interests understands ship mortgage enforcement. The lawyer who handles bill of lading disputes understands air waybill claims. And for multimodal logistics disputes — where cargo travels by sea to an Indian port and then by air to its final destination — the combined aviation and maritime expertise produces a coherent analysis that two separate practices could not.
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Advised an Irish aircraft lessor on the repossession of three narrowbody aircraft from an Indian low-cost carrier that had ceased lease rental payments and was in financial difficulty (pre-insolvency proceedings). GP utilised the Cape Town Convention self-help remedies under the Aircraft Objects Act — sending the prescribed deregistration consent notice, managing the DGCA de-registration application, obtaining the export certificate of airworthiness, and managing the airline's attempted injunction application in the Bombay High Court. The injunction application was successfully opposed on the grounds that the lessor had complied strictly with the Cape Town Convention procedure and that the airline had no arguable case for continued possession. All three aircraft were de-registered and departed India within six weeks of the first enforcement notice.
Advised an Indian cargo owner on the emergency arrest of a vessel at Nhava Sheva (JNPT) following the discovery that the ship had delivered a cargo of USD 3.8 million of chemicals to a fraudulent consignee against a forged bill of lading — without presentation of the original bill of lading held by the cargo owner. GP received instructions at 11pm and filed the arrest application before the Bombay High Court's admiralty judge on an urgent basis at 7am the following morning, obtaining an arrest warrant before the vessel was due to sail at 10am. The vessel was arrested and remained in port until the shipowner provided a P&I Club Letter of Undertaking securing the full value of the claim. The cargo owner then pursued the shipowner's LOI liability in London arbitration.
Advised a GCC-based airline on a regulatory dispute with DGCA arising from the allocation of peak-hour landing slots at Indira Gandhi International Airport — where the airline had been allocated slots that did not match the connectivity requirements of its bilateral Air Services Agreement entitlement. GP made representations to DGCA on the airline's behalf, demonstrating that the slot allocation was inconsistent with the ASA's provisions and with India's obligations under the India-bilateral aviation agreement. GP also advised the airline on the ongoing bilateral Air Services Agreement renegotiation — supporting the airline's government affairs team with the legal analysis of proposed frequency allocations, 5th and 7th freedom rights, and cargo-only frequency provisions. The airline obtained additional frequencies and improved slot timing at the three Indian airports where it operated.
The practice is led by a senior aviation and maritime lawyer with experience across aircraft leasing, Cape Town enforcement, DGCA regulatory practice, admiralty proceedings, and cargo claims — working alongside GP's international corridor specialists for Ireland (the global aircraft leasing centre), Singapore (the Asia Pacific aviation and maritime hub), the UAE/GCC (the largest aviation market for Indian international travel), and Australia. The practice maintains emergency response capability for ship arrests and aircraft repossessions — with the same 24/7 availability that commercial urgency requires.
For distressed airline situations, the practice coordinates with GP's Insolvency and IBC practice — because the interaction between IBC and Cape Town Convention remedies, as demonstrated by the Go First proceedings, requires both perspectives simultaneously.
The Supreme Court's decision in the Go First insolvency proceedings and its impact on Cape Town Convention repossession rights during an IBC moratorium — the structural changes that lessors should make to their Indian lease documentation in response.
Read Alert →The maritime claims that found an arrest application, the procedure before the Bombay and Chennai High Courts, the security that releases a ship, and the timeline from instruction to arrest warrant — a step-by-step guide for overseas P&I clubs, cargo interests, and ship financiers.
Read Guide →Whether you need aircraft repossession managed, a ship arrested before it departs, a DGCA regulatory matter resolved, a cargo claim filed, or an aviation or maritime dispute litigated — our team responds immediately for emergencies and within 24 hours for all other matters.
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