If your aircraft is financed or leased, Cape Town registrations protect the parties' interests, and they have to line up with your FAA filing.
The Cape Town Convention is an international treaty that created a single, web-based International Registry (located in Dublin) for recording interests in high-value mobile equipment, including most airframes, aircraft engines, and helicopters above stated thresholds.
Registering an “international interest” on the International Registry establishes priority for lenders and lessors that is recognized across contracting states. For a buyer, confirming the registry is clean, and discharging old interests, is essential to getting good title.
For U.S.-registered aircraft, FAA filings and International Registry registrations must be coordinated. The FAA issues authorizing codes (AEP codes) that allow the relevant registrations to be made, and the timing of the registry entries is matched to the closing so that priorities are perfected in the right order.
As owner trustee we act as a Transacting User Entity on the International Registry, making and managing the registrations, running priority searches, and ensuring discharges happen when a financing is repaid or the aircraft is sold.
If your aircraft is financed, build Cape Town steps into your closing checklist from day one, search the registry early, and make sure someone owns the task of discharging stale interests. We handle this end-to-end as part of a financed-aircraft registration.
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