What is needed to ferry an aircraft for lease return?
A lease return ferry needs the redelivery condition met on paper before the aircraft moves: current airworthiness status, records in the agreed format, an export certificate where the registry changes, insurance naming the correct parties, and an arrival report the lessor will accept as evidence of condition on delivery.
Key takeaways
- Redelivery disputes are usually about records, not airframe condition
- Register the ferry against the lease deadline, not the maintenance completion date
- An acceptance flight before departure catches items that would otherwise surface at handover
- The arrival report is the evidence that closes the movement
Work backwards from the redelivery date
The lease sets a date. Everything else, including maintenance completion, permit application and crew positioning, is scheduled backwards from it with a buffer for weather and permit slippage. Projects that schedule forwards from a maintenance estimate almost always land late.
The paperwork pack
The pack that travels with the aircraft usually needs to include the following.
- Certificate of airworthiness or export certificate of airworthiness
- Certificate of registration and noise certificate
- Insurance certificate naming owner, lessor and financier as required
- Weight and balance, MEL and current technical log
- General declaration and customs paperwork for each stop
Fly it before you deliver it
An acceptance or functional check flight before the ferry departs is worth the cost on any aircraft that has been in storage or heavy maintenance. Finding a bleed or pressurisation fault on a local sortie is a maintenance item; finding it on the second leg of an oceanic crossing is a diversion, a night stop and a change to the redelivery date.
Close the movement properly
We issue an arrival report at the destination covering fuel state, technical log entries, any defects raised in flight, times and the condition on arrival. It is the document that ends arguments about what happened between the two ramps.
Common questions
Last reviewed March 30, 2026 by the Super Universal operations desk.