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Commercial Aviation Insurance

Hundreds of insurers compete for most other lines of insurance, but only a handful may offer competitive terms for a particular aviation exposure.

Commercial aviation insurance includes operations for hire such as carrying passengers for charter or cargo, flight schools and rental, or any operation for which a profit is made. This also includes crop dusting, spraying, hunting, and fire fighting.

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Coverage Highlights

Below is a list of common types of commercial aviation operators we offer insurance policies for.

Part 135 Air Charter
Part 61 and 141 Flight Schools and Flying Clubs
Part 121 Scheduled Airline Carriers
Part 137 Air Agricultural Operations
Part 145 Aircraft Maintenance Repair Stations
Private and Commercial Airports
Fuel Providers
Fixed Base Operators
Aircraft Manufacturers and Parts

What Our Clients Are Saying...

Types of commercial aviation insurance we offer

Airport Premises Liability

This coverage includes bodily injury and property damage liability arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of the airport premises described in the declarations.

The owner of an airport or portions such as a Fixed Base Operator has the same general type of liability exposure. Airport operators owe a duty to a wide range of people and litigation may arise from a variety of events occurring on, and off, the airport premises. The main sources of litigation may be summarized under two headings:

Aircraft operators such as aircraft accidents, fueling, aircraft in the care, custody or controls of the operator, and maintenance and service work.
Premises operations such as falling, special events, tenants and contractors, and vehicle traffic.

Aviation insurers offer a wide variety of airport premises liability policies designed to fit the particular needs of the airport owners, operators, and lessees, whether they are individuals, partnerships, corporations, municipalities, or governmental organizations.

Aviation Commercial General Liability

We often seen aviation commercial general liability insurance for FBOs, hangar owners for commercial rental, and maintenance companies. The Commercial General Liability adds coverage for: products and completed operations liability, personal and advertising liability, and hangarkeeper’s liability.

Products Liability

Aviation products liability can refer to many different types of aviation commercial operations such as MROs, Manufacturers, Fuel Providers, and sale of aircraft and parts.

FBO Insurance

Fixed Based Operators Check out our FBO insurance policy

Aircraft Charter Operations

Part 135 charter operations is a very common type of commercial aircraft insurance where passengers are paying for transpiration for hire. The aircraft insurance for charter is still aircraft hull and liability insurance but for commercial operations and typically rated slightly higher than private aircraft.

Hangarkeeper’s Liability

Hangarkeeper’s liability protection covers for loss or damage to aircraft which are the property of others and in the custody of the owner for safekeeping, storage, or repairs. If the hangar owner has a much of Gulfstream or Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft in storage they will want to have sufficient coverage limits for property damage such as $200,000,000 per occurrence.

Dry Leases

One of the common misconceptions held by pleasure and business and industrial aid operators is the notion that their hull and liability policy covers reimbursement by other so long as no profit is made. Under Part 91 operations, you cannot profit from your aircraft by charging others for its use, although you can accept payment to cover operating expenses. Aviation insurers reason that their limitation of coverage under conditions where reimbursement is being made is to clearly distinguish between commercial and non commercial risks.

Most aviation insurers will endorse a noncommercial policy without charge to avoid any conflict resulting from reimbursement arrangements provided they are notified in advance.

It’s common to see insurance companies charge $1,500 per dry leases because they are extending coverage to a third party for additional operating exposure and the lessee frequently requests to be listed as additionally insured on the policy.

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Already have commercial aviation insurance?

If you’re operating for commercial hire, chances are you already have an insurance policy. Our team works with all of the aviation insurance companies, including the industry’s newest insurance providers, to ensure your operation gets seen by all of the underwriters.

Questions to ask your current carrier:

How many insurance companies are quoting aviation commercial aviation insurance?
How do I know what a competitive premium for the insurance policy?
Does it help having an aviation insurance specialists for a broker?
What type of aircraft insurance operations are considered ‘Commercial’?
Is a dry lease considered commercial aircraft insurance?
What’s the difference between a dry lease and fractional ownership?
What do I have to do to get a dry lease approved by the insurance company?
Is factional ownership consider commercial aircraft insurance?
Is commercial aircraft or aviation insurance more expensive than private?

What are common options for hull coverage?

The most common option for hull coverage is to insured the aircraft for what it is worth. Over insuring or under insuring will cause a Moral risk. In the event of a total loss – if the aircraft is under insured, the insurance company has the right to take the aircraft and pay the agreed value. If it is overinsured, you may find your aircraft will be in a maintenance shop undergoing extensive repairs when it should have been written off as a total loss.

Already have hull & liability insurance?

One of the most common questions we get as insurance brokers is, “If I already have insurance on my aircraft, can any other broker get me quotes or am I locked in with my current broker?”

The aircraft insurance industry is a very small industry. There’s often somewhere between 15-20 underwriters, total. If your current broker makes a submission to certain companies within a 90 day renewal period, it blocks other brokers from receiving the right to quote. The reason it works this way is because it’s a small industry and underwriters receive 30-50 different submissions a day. If they had to quote every submission 2-3 times it would make their workload overwhelming and your rates increase.

Questions to provide your insurance carrier

We are now in a period where underwriters no longer just quote a hull and liability limit. They are taking a much more controlled and hands on look at an aircraft hull liability insurance policy.

Who owns the company? LLCs are often holding companies. What is the names and percentages of ownership?
What is the effective date or renewal date? Aviation Insurance companies don’t like to quote or compete for new business when there’s an existing policy unless it’s coming up for renewal. Your renewal is the time to negotiate these terms, not mid term.
What is the details of the operation? Are there dry leases? Is there any non-owned exposure where the insured is fly other aircraft? How many hours does the aircraft fly per year? What is the average passenger load? Is there any international exposure? Where does the aircraft typically fly to?