Clifford Chance has advised Jackson Square Aviation on a sale-and-leaseback programme covering 20 Airbus A320neo aircraft for IndiGo, reinforcing the firm’s position in cross-border aviation finance work touching India’s fast-growing airline sector.
Partner Fergus Evans and senior associate Vanessa Heng led on the international elements of the transaction from Singapore, while KLA Legal Advocates & Solicitors handled matters of Indian law. Jackson Square Aviation, a global commercial aircraft lessor, structured the deal to support IndiGo’s expansion across its domestic and international routes, extending what the firms describe as a long-standing commercial relationship between lessor and airline.
The transaction illustrates how lease programmes involving Indian carriers are growing in scale and structural complexity. A 20-aircraft package requires lawyers to build bespoke leasing terms that satisfy a lessor’s commercial and risk requirements while accommodating an airline’s operational growth plans, and deals of this size increasingly demand coordinated advice across multiple jurisdictions for aviation finance practitioners.
That coordination model, pairing an international firm with local Indian counsel such as KLA Legal Advocates & Solicitors, is becoming a standard structure for firms without a direct India office seeking to service aviation finance clients there.
The deal also sits within a broader pattern of activity connecting international law firms to Indian aviation financing. Clifford Chance previously advised SMBC on a JOLCO transaction for IndiGo executed through GIFT City, and separately advised HSBC on an Air India financing that marked the first use of GIFT City structures in aviation finance.
Taken together, these mandates point to GIFT City’s emerging role as a jurisdiction of choice for aircraft financing involving Indian carriers, a development that in-house counsel at lessors, airlines and financiers will want to track closely given its implications for tax treatment, regulatory approval timelines and structuring options.
Solicitors advising lessors, airlines or financiers active in the Indian market should expect sale-and-leaseback and JOLCO structures to remain a recurring feature of instructions, with GIFT City increasingly cited as a preferred venue for structuring.
As Indian aviation demand continues to expand fleets at pace, practitioners with established India-facing aviation finance experience are likely to see instruction volumes rise accordingly, and firms able to demonstrate repeat mandates across financing structures and jurisdictions are best placed to capture that growth.