Peter Coles

Full Profile

Peter has 27 years’ experience working for the aviation industry, including working for a Hong Kong airline in the early 1990s and working for legal practices in Singapore and Hong Kong over the last 22 years. 

He handles a broad range of matters including regulatory, commercial, employment, insolvency and enforcement matters, contingency planning, emergency response, health and safety prosecutions, multi-jurisdictional catastrophe and attritional claims (passenger, cargo, aircraft damage etc) handling.

Peter qualified in England and Wales in 1996 and Hong Kong in 2003.

Experience

• Acting for start-up and existing airlines in APAC on obtaining AOCs and foreign carrier permits,  air service agreements, designation, licences and airport slots
• Advising operators on hiring of pilots and management and training bonds
• Advising airlines, MROs and ground handlers in relation to foreign direct investment decisions including due diligence, nationality of ownership and control restrictions, structures, insurance and acquisitions.
• Advising airlines and owners on the Boeing MAX debacle; and the grounding of other aircraft due to defective engines.  
• Acting for airlines and ground handlers in relation to the introduction of e-freight, use of e-AWBs and processes
• Advising MROs on heavy airframe and line maintenance, fleet technical and inventory management, PBH and other agreements, licensing
• Advising airlines, general and business aviation operators, and others as to their terms and conditions of carriage and trade (with passengers, travel and cargo agents, ferry and rail operators),charters, code share agreements, mandatory reporting and antibribery practices
• Acting for airlines, logistic operators and MROs in relation to dawn raids and antitrust clearances, investigations and proceedings in APAC and North America.
• Acting for cargo terminals in relation to Pearl River Delta cross border trucking arrangements
• Representing aircraft operators, flying clubs, manufacturers and ground handlers and their insurers in relation to contingency planning, major aircraft accidents and serious incidents involving aircraft, hangars and warehouses, fires and structure collapses, handling official investigations, health and safety prosecutions, claims and subrogated recoveries.
• Advising North American and European equipment manufacturers in relation to product liability investigations and litigation.
• Assisting in the recovery of debts from operators and lessors of aircraft, including asset seizures and bankruptcy proceedings in Bahrain, Hong Kong, mainland China, Philippines, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.