Aviation

The Firm’s Aviation practice has represented airline and airport management companies in a wide range of non-contentious and contentious matters.

During the Covid-19 years of 2020 and 2021, the team journeyed with its aviation clients in what was the most difficult period in decades. Today, many have resumed business as borders started to reopen.

Notably, Mr Lok Vi Ming, S.C. was the lead counsel for the Singapore Airlines SQ 006 crash in Taiwan and the Silkair MI 185 crash in Palembang, which were two of Singapore’s worst aviation disasters. As counsel working with not just legal proceedings but grieving families, Mr Lok Vi Ming, S.C., recalls having to ask family members to fill up a questionnaire on the dead passengers’ incomes, expenditure and the particulars of their dependants – to process their claims and in an interview, recalled that “Asking them to fill up this questionnaire and having to (examine) the relationship they lost – that was going to be challenging. We had to walk the journey with them. I told my team, we had to exercise a lot of patience. We had to be facilitative, helpful and patient, to help widows, widowers, grieving parents and children navigate the process as best as we could.”

The team has also advised clients and insurers on their rights and liabilities in relation to specialised contracts such as ground-handling and power supply contracts. We have also advised clients on their obligations arising from the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions to passengers and for cargo.

Given the team’s wide experience, the team is well-placed to advise clients on aviation-related matters.