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A financier reading an Indian aircraft lease for the first time usually asks the same question: on default, how quickly can the aircraft leave the country. The document answers confidently. The answer that matters, though, is not in the document at all — it sits with the regulator.
The instrument and the authority are different things
An Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisation is a creature of the Cape Town Convention framework. It records that the operator has authorised a named party to procure deregistration of the aircraft and its export, and that the authorisation cannot be revoked unilaterally. Recorded with the regulator, it gives the authorised party standing to ask for deregistration without the operator's cooperation at the moment it is least likely to be given.
What it does not do is make deregistration automatic.
Where the time actually goes
In practice, the delay between a default and an aircraft leaving Indian airspace tends to sit in a small number of places:
- Recording. An IDERA that was never properly recorded is an IDERA that does not work when it is needed. This is administrative, avoidable, and routinely discovered late.
- Competing claims. Dues owed to airport operators, ground handlers and authorities travel with the aircraft in practical terms even where they do not in legal ones.
- Physical custody. Deregistration is a paper act. Recovering an aircraft that is parked, partially disassembled, or subject to a lien asserted by whoever controls the stand is not.
- Records. An aircraft without complete and accepted technical records is difficult to export and worth substantially less when it arrives.
What this means at documentation stage
The provisions that matter most on default are usually the least negotiated at signing — access and inspection rights, obligations to keep records current and available, undertakings around parking and maintenance location, and clear mechanics for the IDERA itself.
Nothing in this note is legal advice or a substitute for it. Please seek advice on your specific circumstances.
This note is published for general information at the specific request of the reader. It is not legal advice, does not constitute solicitation or advertisement under Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules, and no advocate–client relationship arises from reading it. Please seek advice on your own circumstances.