This registry will allow financial institutions to register their financial interest in aircraft and through this establish their priority of interest in such holdings. As a result, the risk of lending can be better assessed allowing financial institutions to drastically reduce the interest rates they currently charge. This is expected to reduce aircraft leasing costs by approximately 2 per cent globally, saving the airline business around US $ 5 billion each year.

Aviareto, a joint-venture between SITA SC and the Irish Government, has been selected by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to create and manage the International Registry of Mobile Assets. Both the Registry and Aviareto will be readily identifiable and accessible to users through use of .aero domain names.

The Registry provides a central repository, an electronic database, that will record interests in aircraft equipment, airframes, aircraft engines and helicopters - involving transactions in Cape Town Treaty contracting states. As a result, the risk of lending can be better assessed allowing financial institutions to drastically reduce the interest rates they currently charge.

Benefit for the aviation sector

The Treaty will help align law with financing and leasing practices that are common worldwide. That alignment, enhancing predictability on the rights established by contract and secured by aircraft equipment, will materially reduce risk and provide efficiencies for the benefit of the whole aviation sector. It uses the concept of an "international interest" in equipment that will be recognized and enforced in all contracting states.

The Cape Town Convention – a framework document – is modified by the Protocol (for Aircraft Equipment) and may be modified in the future by other protocols for other types of mobile equipment.

The International Registry is at the centre of the Cape Town Treaty system. In simple terms, if interests that are registrable under legal texts are not registered with the International Registry when the Cape Town Treaty applies, they will not have priority over those that are registered. In that sense, registration is legally mandatory, if priority – a key feature of any financing – is to be ensured. The International Civil Aviation Organization will act as "Supervisory Authority" for the International Registry. 

Aviareto has been charged with setting up the Registry and then managing it on behalf of ICAO and the air transport community. 

"Naturally, Aviareto chose .aero as the principal domain, both for the Registry and for Aviareto," explained SITA's Head of Business Development Relationship Management and Head of New Business Ventures René Azoulai." When it goes live, the site www.internationalregistry.aero will be where the relative priority of debtor and creditor rights will be recorded. It was important that the Registry had its own first level domain that clearly identifies its exclusive relevance to the air transport community. Only the .aero domain could provide that."

The Registry is expected to go live early in 2006, 90 days following ratification of the Cape Town Convention by an eighth country. To date, seven countries (Ethiopia, Ireland, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, and the United States) have ratified the treaty, with several more preparing to sign.

The site www.aviareto.aero is the home website for the company responsible for managing and operating the Registry. You can visit the Aviareto website and learn more about this ground-breaking project at www.aviareto.aero.