Airports

Our specialist airports practice is ranked in the Legal 500 and is made up of specialist lawyers from our real estate, planning, disputes, insurance, commercial, employment, construction, and public sector practices. This allows us to provide a full range of legal services with airport specific knowledge, in both the public and private sector.

We are very aware that offering legal services in this sector requires an understanding of the emerging policy and the regulatory context in which airports, airlines and associated support services operate. As a member of Airports UK, we keep close to key sector stakeholders and industry developments and engage with participants across the airport and aviation industry at industry events both in the UK and overseas. We have positioned ourselves centrally in thought leadership in respect of ESG, including in how airports confront the issue of expansion whilst reducing their environmental impact.

Airports are major infrastructure with significant and complex real estate assets and interests. Our leading aviation real estate practice has strong expertise in airports and aviation related property.
Our team has an extensive track record of dealing with the practicalities and nuances of airside property, whether it is hangar space, terminal offices and retail space, or the extension and development of adjacent land for airport uses.

We have advised a number of aviation related clients (including airport owners, operators and airlines) on issues arising in airport property transactions including specialist planning, construction and development aspects.

This includes advising on all aspects of the acquisition and development of land for airport related uses, including due diligence, agreements with third parties (be it sellers or future tenants), the construction package, financing and forward funding arrangements and planning. We can also advise on specific issues in respect of increasing airport capacity, including public safety zones, ATM limits, passenger number limits, access routes and security.

In brief

• We work efficiently so that we can work to tight timescales and we proactively manage transactions to ensure that these timescales are met.
• We negotiate documents commercially, without taking unnecessary or irrelevant points, with a view to reaching completion as efficiently as possible.
• We understand the importance of ESG and sustainability to airport operators, airlines and associated support service providers and can suggest ways these issues can be dealt with in legal documents.
• We will seek to build good relationships between your team and ours, so that picking up the phone is always easy and transactions can be run as smoothly as possible.
• We take a pragmatic approach to disputes, seeking to resolve these in the most efficient manner possible, and always tailored to your objectives. Litigation is used carefully as a last resort to deliver the right negotiated outcome rather than constituting an end in itself.