Plane and Aviation Insurance

Aviation Insurance was first introduced in the early years of the 20th Century.

It is not known who wrote the very first aviation insurance policy though there is evidence that early aviators did purchase limited amounts of coverage.

It is believed that the first aviation polices were underwritten by the marine insurance Underwriting community.

In 1929 the Warsaw convention was signed. The convention was an agreement to establish terms, conditions and limitations of liability for carriage by air, this was the first recognition of the airline industry as we know it today.

By 1933 realising that there should be a specialist industry sector the International Union of Marine Insurance [1] (IUMI) set up an aviation committee, and by 1934 eight European aviation insurance companies and pools were formally established and the International Union of Aviation Insurers [2] (IUAI) was born.

The London insurance market is still the largest single centre for aviation insurance.

The market is made up of the traditional Lloyds of London syndicates and numerous other traditional insurance markets. Throughout the rest of the world there are national markets established in various countries, this is dependent on the aviation activity within each country, the US has a large percentage of the world's general aviation fleet and has a large established market.

No single insurer has the resources to retain a risk the size of a major airline, or even a substantial proportion of such a risk.

The Catastrophic nature of aviation insurance can be measured in the number of losses that have cost insurers hundreds of millions of dollars (Aviation accidents and incidents).

Most airlines arrange "fleet policies" to cover all aircraft they own or operate.