Authored by Kiasha Nagiah, Eric Geldenhuys and Alistair Verhooght.
Aircraft routinely cross borders, but the legal rights attached to them must remain certain and enforceable. This article considers how the Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol support regulatory certainty through the registration and enforcement of international interests, and examines the practical implications for aircraft owners, operators, lessors, financiers and aviation stakeholders in South Africa.
The Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, adopted in Cape Town on 16 November 2001 and in force since 1 March 2006 (Cape Town Convention), facilitates the acquisition, financing and leasing of high-value mobile equipment such as aircraft. The Cape Town Convention is read and interpreted with the Protocol on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment, also adopted on 16 November 2001 (Aircraft Protocol). Aircraft frequently move between jurisdictions and may therefore become subject to different legal systems that adopt different approaches to the registration, recognition and enforcement of security interests. These legal uncertainties can increase the risks and costs associated with financing and leasing of mobile assets.
To address these challenges, the Cape Town Convention establishes a uniform international legal framework governing international interests in high-value mobile equipment. The Convention operates through equipment-specific protocols. Four have been adopted: the Aircraft Protocol (2001), the Railway Rolling Stock Protocol, the Space Assets Protocol, and the Protocol on Mining, Agricultural and Construction Equipment adopted in Pretoria on 22 November 2019.
When does the Convention apply?
The Cape Town Convention applies where, at the time the agreement creating or providing for an international interest is concluded, the debtor is situated in a Contracting State. An international interest is a registrable interest of a creditor, conditional seller or lessor in an aircraft object, being an airframe, aircraft engine or helicopter that meets the thresholds in article I of the Aircraft Protocol. The Aircraft Protocol adds a second connecting factor: the Convention also applies where a helicopter, or an airframe pertaining to an aircraft, is registered in the aircraft register of a Contracting State that is the State of registry. An interest in an aircraft engine is registrable on the International Registry in the same way as an interest in an airframe or a helicopter. An engine has no nationality, though, and so appears on no national aircraft register.
Contracting State means a State for which the Convention and the Aircraft Protocol are in force. State of registry means the State on whose national register the aircraft, or, for an aircraft operated by an international operating agency under a common mark, the State where the common mark registering authority maintaining the aircraft register is located. Registration on that register gives the aircraft its nationality and an aircraft may be registered in only one State at a time, as provided under articles 17 and 18 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, 1944 (known as the Chicago Convention). UNIDROIT, the depositary, maintains the status list and status map of Contracting States. Click here to see a map.
The International Registry and registrable interests
The Convention establishes an International Registry, on which parties register and discharge international interests. An international interest is an interest in an aircraft object held by a creditor under a security agreement, by a conditional seller under a title reservation agreement, or by a lessor under a leasing agreement. The category of leasing agreement is wide: it covers operating leases and finance leases. A lease that in substance secures payment is treated as a security agreement rather than a lease. Registering an interest promotes legal certainty and protects the rights of creditors and lessors.
South African implementation and the entry point
The Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment Act, 2007 (CIIMEA) enacted the Convention and the Aircraft Protocol in South African law with effect from 24 August 2007. Contracting States may designate an entry point for registrations, but the Convention does not require them to do so. Where a Contracting State designates an entry point and compels its use, a registration made otherwise than through that entry point is invalid.
The CIIMEA designates the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), under article 18(5) of the Convention, as the entry point through which the information required for registration may be transmitted to the International Registry. The entry point does not authorise the interest itself. Depending on how a State frames its designation, the entry point either transmits the registration information to the International Registry, or issues an authorisation code that the parties need to complete the registration. The CIIMEA says information may be transmitted through the SACAA, so use of the entry point is not compulsory and parties may still register directly with the International Registry.
A designation may permit, but not compel, the use of an entry point for registrations against aircraft engines. Aircraft, to which an airframe pertains, and helicopters take the nationality of the State on whose register it appears, so that State's authority is the natural conduit for registration information. Engines carry no nationality registration, so there is no equivalent national register to route them through.
Remedies on default
The Cape Town Convention provides remedies to creditors through the enforcement of security interests upon an event of default. Following a default, a creditor may take possession or control of the aircraft object, sell or lease it, or collect income or profits arising from its management or use. Any remedy must be exercised in a commercially reasonable manner, and ten or more working days’ prior written notice of a proposed sale or lease is deemed reasonable notice. A further route to recovering the aircraft is the Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorisation (IDERA). The Aircraft Protocol does not compel a debtor to issue one, so creditors normally require an IDEA in their favour as part of the transaction documents, well before any default.
Where the State of registry has made the relevant declaration, the recordation and honouring machinery becomes available. Once the debtor issues and records the IDERA, the registry authority and other administrative authorities in that State must expeditiously co-operate with the authorised party in procuring the de-registration of the aircraft and the export and physical transfer of the aircraft object.
The authorities must honour the request only if it is properly submitted by the authorised party under a recorded IDERA and, if required, the authorised party certifies that prior-ranking registered interests have been discharged or their holders have consented. The duty is subject to applicable aviation safety laws and regulations.
De-registration is available only for an aircraft, because only the authority responsible for nationality registration can remove an aircraft from its register. Engines carry no nationality registration, so the aircraft registry has no role for them. Export and physical transfer, by contrast, apply to the aircraft object, and so extend to engines in which the creditor holds an international interest, whether or not they are installed.
The South African aircraft mortgage register
The SACAA mortgage register, kept by the Director for Civil Aviation under section 4 of the Convention on the International Recognition of Rights in Aircraft Act, 1993, therefore continues to operate alongside the International Registry. The register records mortgages over aircraft and shares in aircraft. For this purpose, an aircraft includes its airframe, engines, propellers, radio apparatus and other articles intended for use in it, whether installed or temporarily separated, and a recorded right may extend to spare parts stored in a specified place. Mortgages rank in priority according to the date and time of recording, not the date of execution. A creditor taking security over a South African-registered aircraft should consider both registers.
One practical limit is that the SACAA register records a mortgage over the aircraft as a whole, so an engine cannot be mortgaged separately on it. A separate interest in an engine must be registered on the International Registry.
Moving an aircraft on and off the South African register
Two recent amendments bear on moving an aircraft on and off the South African register. The Thirty-Third Amendment to the South African Civil Aviation Regulations, gazetted on 21 August 2026, inserted regulation 21.10.3, which lists the documents an importer must submit for a South African certificate of airworthiness. These include a certificate or notification of cancellation of registration from the authority of the State in which the aircraft was last registered, or a certificate of non-registration from the State from which it is imported, together with an export or existing certificate of airworthiness.
Further information
For further information on the Cape Town Convention refer to the Guide as to the Registration of International Interests and Irrevocable de-registration and export request authorisations for aircraft objects below.
Guide as to the Registration of International Interests and Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorisations for aircraft objects
1 Registration of international interests
1.1 In registering an international interest, the first step required is to confirm that the interest qualifies as an international interest. For aircraft objects, there are only three categories of international interest:
(1) an interest granted to a creditor under a security agreement;
(2) an interest vested in a conditional seller under a title reservation agreement; and
(3) an interest vested in a lessor under a leasing agreement.
What is registered is the interest, not the aircraft object itself. The object is identified only so that the interest can be located on a search.
1.2 The underlying agreement to which the international interest relates must meet the following criteria:
(1) be in writing;
(2) relate to an aircraft object which the chargor, conditional seller or lessor has power to dispose of;
(3) the aircraft object to which an international interest is being registered is identifiable through the manufacturer’s name, the manufacturer’s serial number and the model designation, and meets the definition of aircraft object in article I of the Aircraft Protocol; and
(4) for a security agreement the secured obligation must be determinable, but without the need to state a maximum sum secured.
1.3 The manufacturer’s name, serial number and model designation are both necessary and sufficient to identify the object. No other means of identification is required.
1.4 A leasing agreement is an agreement by which one person grants a right to possession or control of an aircraft object to another, with or without an option to purchase, in return for rent or other payment. Operating leases, finance leases, subleases and head leases can all give rise to a registrable international interest, if the lessor has power to dispose of the object.
1.5 Aircraft object is an airframe, an aircraft engine or a helicopter meeting the specification in article I of the Aircraft Protocol:
(1) an airframe qualifies if, with appropriate engines installed, it is type certified to carry at least 8 persons including crew, or goods over 2 750 kg;
(2) a helicopter qualifies if it is type certified to carry at least 5 persons including crew, or goods over 450 kg; and
(3) an engine qualifies if it is jet powered with at least 1 750 pounds of thrust, or turbine or piston powered with at least 550 rated take-off shaft horsepower.
(4) Military, customs and police aircraft are excluded.
1.6 Some Contracting States have designated an entry point. South Africa has designated the SACAA, through which registration information may be transmitted but the CIIMEA does not make its use compulsory. Other Contracting States allow parties to register directly on the International Registry. Before registering, establish whether the relevant Contracting State has designated an entry point and, if so, comply with that State’s procedures.
1.7 Under article 20 of the Cape Town Convention, either party may effect the registration of an international interest with the written consent of the other. For aircraft objects, the consenting party must transmit that consent electronically before the registration becomes effective.
2 Registration of an irrevocable de-registration and export request authorisation
2.1 Deregistration is an enforcement step, so it usually starts only once the debtor defaults and the creditor calls up the IDERA. The IDERA itself is put in place much earlier, at closing, because the Aircraft Protocol does not compel a debtor to issue one after the event.
2.2 For deregistration, the debtor files and records an IDERA with the aircraft registry authority of the State of registry. It is not registered on the International Registry. That filing is what obliges the registry authority to act on the authorised party’s request. The IDERA and the international interest run on separate tracks. The international interest is registered on the International Registry and governs priority against competing interests. The IDERA sits on the national register and governs the practical steps of deregistration and export. The IDERA neither creates nor perfects the international interest, and deregistration under an IDERA does not discharge the international registration, which must be discharged separately.
2.3 The registration remains until it is discharged. A registration that is current does not necessarily mean the international interest still exists: if a conditional buyer completes payment and acquires title, the conditional seller’s interest ends whether or not the registration is discharged.
2.4 In South Africa, the process runs as follows:
(1) the debtor signs the IDERA in the form annexed to the Aircraft Protocol and names a single authorised party;
(2) the debtor lodges the IDERA with the Director of Civil Aviation;
(3) the SACAA records the IDERA against the aircraft on the South African Civil Aircraft Register;
(4) on default, the authorised party, or its certified designee, requests deregistration and export; and
(5) the SACAA and other administrative authorities must co-operate promptly to give effect to that request, subject to applicable aviation safety laws and regulations.
Only the authorised party named in the IDERA, or its certified designee, may make the request. The debtor cannot revoke the IDERA without the authorised party's written consent.