The Cayman Islands as a destination for aviation investment funds

Many a traveller of a certain age will talk of the 'glory days of air travel' as if it were a bygone era which was at once glamorous and adventurous. It may well be that, for the average traveller, the evolution of air travel and its becoming commonplace has rendered it all rather humdrum. But it is precisely this evolution which has tipped the balance from the traveller to the practitioner – never before has the aviation sector been such an exciting place to work.

It is not just the usual suspects who are excited by aviation: the sector has been attracting increasing levels of attention from an investor community seeking exposure to ever-more-interesting alternative assets within their investment portfolios. True, the investment funds industry has long been interested in the aviation sector with fund managers such as Fortress and Terra Firma leading the way a decade ago when we saw a trickle of private equity money funnelling into the aviation industry. That trickle of money has grown in volume significantly in the past few years, as has the breadth of investment focus.