For more than half a century, Cleary Gottlieb has been at the forefront of aviation law – from our representation of the U.S. airline that pioneered transoceanic air travel and transport to our roles in the current consolidation and restructuring of the industry. Aviation can be a volatile business, but our steadfast commitment to quality representation has expanded our work to include clients based in almost 20 countries.

Lawyers from our diverse practice areas work cooperatively to advise aviation clients on a variety of matters globally, including: privatizations of state-owned airlines and airports; aircraft and capital purchasing and financing; structuring stock options; mergers and acquisitions; providing antitrust/competition law advice on transactions and in regarding allegations of anticompetitive conduct; equity and debt offerings; secured transactions; IPOs; negotiating company alliances; increasing international access to airports; technology transfer arrangements; labor negotiations and disputes; litigation and arbitration; and bankruptcy and restructuring.

Practice highlights include:

• Counsel to Aeroports de Paris in €1.3 billion IPO.
  
  
• Regular counsel to Italy’s flagship airline Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane including in recent representations such as its 2006 €1billion capital increase—a key element in the Italian government's rescue package for the troubled airline—and in Alitalia’s action in the European Court of First Instance seeking to annul the July 2001 European Commission decision to authorize State Aid conditionally.
  
  
• Counsel to Alenia Aeronautica, subsidiary of Finmeccanica, in its joint venture with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corp. (SCAC), the subsidiary of Sukhoi Aviation Holding, for the development and commercialization of the Superjet 100, a new mid-range civilian aircraft.
  
  
• Counsel to Travelport/Galileo, one of the three major computer reservation systems (which recently merged with Worldspan), with respect to a number of merger control, antitrust, and regulatory matters.
  
  
• Counsel to Airline Tariff Publishing Company, a joint venture of U.S. and non-U.S. carriers that disseminates fare information worldwide to computer reservations systems, airlines and travel agents, in the largest antitrust class-action price fixing suit ever brought, and in a separate action by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging tacit collusion among U.S. airlines to use ATP as a mechanism to manipulate air fares.
  
  
• Counsel in IPO of Panamanian airline Copa, one of the first Panamanian companies to be listed on the NYSE.
  
  
• Counsel to Continental Airlines in a broad range of corporate and financing activities, including the issuance of equity and secured and unsecured debt securities, the renegotiation of various loan agreements, litigations and e-commerce matters.
  
  
• Counsel to British Airways in the EC Commission’s approval of its strategic alliance with Iberia and GB Airways.
  
  
• Counsel to the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of Mexico in the Mexican government’s $203 million sale of 36% of the outstanding capital stock of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, S.A. de C.V. to Empresas ICA, S.A. de C.V.
  
  
• Regular counsel to Airbus Industrie including recent representations in trade matters relating to aircraft manufacture and in a matter before both the U.S. and EU antitrust authorities, among others.
  
  
• Counsel to British Airways in an antitrust investigation by the UK Office of Fair Trading into the airline’s corporate discounting practices.
  
  
• Counsel to the Belgian State and Belgian institutional shareholders in the €735 million sale of a 70% interest in Brussels International Airport Company.
  
  
• Counsel to equity sponsors of the only two major U.S. airlines to emerge successfully from bankruptcy. (We are currently active in over 10 airline restructurings worldwide.)