Market participants in Lithuania’s aviation sector are currently subject to an excessive legal requirement – the transfer of ownership of an aircraft must be executed in notarised form. AVERUS law firm calls on the relevant institutions to review this outdated practice, which imposes unjustified administrative and financial burdens on the aviation industry.

"Aircraft should not automatically be equated with immovable property. The fact that they are high-value assets should not, in itself, dictate the form of the transfer transaction. This requirement is not applied, for instance, to ships – why, then, is a stricter regime applied to aircraft?" notes Laura Čereškaitė-Kinčiuvienė, Managing Partner at AVERUS and Head of the Aviation Practice.

She highlights that the requirement to notarise aircraft ownership transfer transactions is quite unique to Lithuania, as most other jurisdictions do not impose such a condition.

"In commercial and business aviation, most civil aircraft transactions have a cross-border element. The notarisation requirement leads to unnecessarily high costs and time delays for the parties involved, undermining the competitiveness of our jurisdiction. It also creates an unjustified discrepancy between the treatment of aircraft and ships – the latter can now be transferred under a simple written form, since recent legislative changes reclassified ships as movable property,” said the aviation law expert.

Currently, notary fees for a single aircraft transfer transaction may reach EUR 5,000, given that aircraft in commercial and business aviation typically exceed EUR 1 million in value.

Recent Legal Changes Exempt Ships from Notarisation

Under the current Civil Code provisions, both aircraft and ships are classified as immovable property, requiring notarised transfer agreements. However, despite this formal equivalence, recent legislative changes have established a different practice for ships.

Amendments to the Law on Merchant Shipping adopted in 2023 reclassified maritime vessels (excluding the LNG storage vessel Independence) as movable property. As a result, notarisation is no longer required for the transfer of registered maritime vessels in Lithuania.

Similar Reforms Needed for Aircraft

According to legal experts, the excessive notarisation requirement for aircraft transactions could be eliminated either by changing current administrative practice or by amending the Aviation Law to explicitly state that aircraft are not to be considered immovable property.

"The Transport Competence Agency should no longer require notarised transfer documents for aircraft registered in Lithuania. Alternatively, the Aviation Law should be amended to specify that civil aircraft are not considered immovable property, unless otherwise provided by law. This would bring clarity and regulatory parity between aircraft and maritime vessels," adds Laura Čereškaitė-Kinčiuvienė.

AVERUS invites relevant institutions and the legal community to engage in a dialogue on the need to modernise the regulatory framework and strengthen Lithuania’s position as a competitive jurisdiction for aviation.

About AVERUS

AVERUS is a business law firm with offices in Vilnius and Klaipėda. Since 2014, the international legal directory Legal 500 has recognised AVERUS as one of the leading law firms in Lithuania in the areas of aviation, shipping and transport, as well as dispute resolution.