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Leasing an aircraft to a Maghreb-based airline: what changes

18 September 2026 · 5 min read

A dry lease into Casablanca, Algiers or Tunis is negotiated on the same term sheet as anywhere else. What changes sits underneath it: the legal footing for a repossession, getting hard currency out, withholding tax, the registry. Those are the lines a lessor's credit committee and counsel read first — the ones that set the price. Here is the map, country by country, with sources.

No Cape Town Convention: the starting point

Neither Morocco, Algeria nor Tunisia appears among the Contracting States to the Cape Town Convention and its Aircraft Protocol, according to UNIDROIT's status lists; in Morocco accession is being debated, nothing has been deposited. So: no Protocol remedies, and no IDERA, which is a Protocol instrument. One nuance: the Protocol also reaches an airframe registered in a Contracting State (Article IV), which is why the registry choice matters.

What all three are party to: the 1948 Geneva Convention on the recognition of rights in aircraft (in force for Algeria since 1964, Tunisia since 1966, Morocco since 1994, per ICAO's list) and the 1958 New York Convention on arbitral awards (accessions: Morocco 1959, Tunisia 1967, Algeria 1989). Lessor counsel build on that: rights recorded on the register, an arbitration clause, a de-registration power of attorney.

Getting hard currency out: clearance before signature

Rent, deposit and reserves are paid in dollars. All three countries run exchange control on a shared logic: current payments go through authorised banks against documents; anything else needs approval.

• Algeria — Banque d'Algérie Regulation 07-01 makes payments for current transactions free (Art. 3), but requires any import of services to be domiciled with a bank before the first transfer (Art. 29); air transport falls under a dedicated instruction (Art. 79).
• Morocco — the Office des Changes' General Instruction lists equipment rental among the service imports banks settle against documents.
• Tunisia — transfers for current operations need no central bank approval (Circular 2016-09); other settlements still do.

The grey area is the same everywhere: a security deposit or reserves held by the lessor are not payment for a service. Their treatment is checked with the bank before signature — lessors make it a condition precedent.

Withholding tax: who carries it

A lease almost always carries a gross-up clause: if tax is withheld on rent paid to a non-resident lessor, the lessee bears it on top. Each code has its own regime, to be characterised with local tax counsel:

• Morocco — the General Tax Code (Art. 6) exempts from withholding the rental fees and similar remuneration for chartering, leasing and maintaining aircraft assigned to international transport.
• Algeria — a 60% reduction of the withholding base for rent under an international finance lease (crédit-bail) paid to a lessor not established there, per the tax administration. Does an operating dry lease qualify? Have it confirmed.
• Tunisia — the income and corporate tax code (Art. 3) exempts remuneration for chartering aircraft assigned to international traffic; same question for a bareboat lease.

The tax treaty with the lessor's State can still change the outcome: a term-sheet item, not a first-invoice surprise.

Registry: local or foreign, and how you get off it

One pattern: register the aircraft locally (CN-, 7T-, TS-); the lessor looks at how its rights are recorded there and how de-registration is obtained. The other: keep a foreign registration, which requires an arrangement between authorities under Article 83 bis of the Chicago Convention — to be started early. With no IDERA, export comfort rests on a de-registration power of attorney and on the local authority's practice: it is the first opinion lessor counsel ask for.

The lease stays in English, under English or New York law; local filings are made in French or Arabic, with translated and apostilled documents — Algeria has applied the Apostille Convention since 9 July 2026, after Morocco (2016) and Tunisia (2018).

Flying to Europe: TCO and the Air Safety List

To serve Europe, any third-country operator needs an EASA TCO authorisation (Regulation (EU) No 452/2014) with technical specifications: a new aircraft or type is declared there and planned alongside delivery. Then the EU Air Safety List: at the 9 June 2026 update no Moroccan or Tunisian carrier is listed, one Algerian carrier was added individually, and all carriers certified in Libya remain banned. For a lessor, this is about where the asset can be flown.

State-owned or private, and the season

The region's flag carriers are state-owned: their needs go through published tenders — see our note on government aircraft lease tenders. Of a private carrier a lessor will ask more: identified shareholders, guarantees, often the path of a start-up airline.

Demand is sharply seasonal: the diaspora's summer peak, Hajj and Umrah. Working through a dry lease takes months; the peak does not wait. Hence, every summer, A320s on ACMI, flown under the supplying operator's certificate. ACMI buys time; it does not replace a fleet.

What we do with this map

On the airline side, we prepare the file as the lessor will read it — exchange control, tax, registration, TCO — before approaching the market. On the lessor side, we qualify the lessee on those same points before any introduction. This note maps what changes; it is not legal or tax advice.

Sources, consulted in September 2026: UNIDROIT, ICAO (Geneva 1948), New York Convention, HCCH (Apostille), Banque d'Algérie, EASA (TCO), European Commission (9 June 2026 list).