U.S.- EU To Help Airlines Cover War, Terrorist Risks

The governments of the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union rode to the rescue of the airline industry over the weekend when they announced separate decisions to help carriers cope with increases in premiums covering war risks and terrorist exposures, thus averting a global grounding of most flights, that could have begun at midnight tonight. The London insurance market, which insures a large proportion of the world‘s commercial aviation, gave seven days notice of its intention to cancel coverage, but stated that replacement policies could be obtained - at drastically higher rates (See IJ Website Set. 20). The rest of the world‘s aviation insurers announced similar plans.