Eight professions stand between a handshake and a delivery flight.
An aircraft changes hands when an introducer, a fellow broker, a financier, an appraiser, a technical team, a lawyer, an insurer and an escrow agent each do their part, on time. We hold the broker's seat — nothing more. This page is an open invitation to the other eight: what we bring you, what we ask of you, the rule between us, and how to join.
Eight seats, in the order they enter a transaction.
Pick yours. Each section says what we bring you, what we ask, and the rule between us — with its own way in.
Six gates. Your seat at each.
Every Skyplo mandate moves through the same six gates, in the same order. This is where each profession steps in — and why we want to know you before the gate opens, not during it.
| Seat | 1Qualification & NCNDA | 2Sourcing & screening | 3LOI / Term sheet | 4Due diligence | 5Docs & escrow | 6Closing & delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business introducers | involved | involved | ||||
| Fellow brokers | involved | involved | ||||
| Financiers | involved | involved | involved | |||
| Certified appraisers | involved | involved | ||||
| Technical partners | involved | involved | ||||
| Aviation counsel | involved | involved | involved | involved | ||
| Aviation insurance brokers | involved | involved | ||||
| Escrow agents & owner trustees | involved | involved | involved |
You know where the aircraft is, or who needs one. We turn it into a mandate — and put your share in writing.
You are close to a market we are not: a regional operator, a fleet about to be retired, a lessor's remarketing desk, a ministry. You have also seen good introductions evaporate in chains of intermediaries where nobody could produce a mandate. We work the other way round.
What we bring
- A written introducer agreement before anything moves: scope, your share of our success fee, duration, non-circumvention.
- A short chain — you, us, the principal — with your role disclosed to the principal. That is what makes your share enforceable.
- Execution through to closing: qualification, sourcing, due diligence, documentation, escrow. You are kept informed at each gate.
What we ask
- A real relationship with a decision-maker — not a forwarded message. See how we read a tender that arrives through a chain.
- To be screened like any counterparty: identity, beneficial owners, sanctions.
- No payment, ever, to a public official or to an employee of a counterparty. Files that need one are declined.
Success-based, like us: your share is paid out of our fee, at closing — signed and funded. Nothing implied, nothing assumed, nothing verbal.
You have the buyer, we have the aircraft — or the reverse. Each of us paid by our own side.
Co-brokerage fails when fees are hidden and chains get long. It works when each broker represents one side, says so from the first call, and is paid by that side. That is the only way we do it.
What we bring
- Our side is always disclosed: you know who we act for before you tell us anything.
- Requirements and availabilities in a common format — type, vintage, engines, maintenance status, region, window. Never an MSN or an owner's name before the other side is qualified.
- Reach on our types and geographies — Airbus and Boeing commercial aircraft, Europe, Middle East, North Africa — and respect for yours.
What we ask
- A written mandate on your side, and the ability to evidence it.
- An NCNDA between us, then discipline: the file is not re-circulated.
- The same compliance bar as ours — KYC, sanctions screening — on your principal.
No fee-splitting across sides: each broker is paid by its own principal, under its own engagement. Where we ask you to cover a market for our principal, the split is written before the first introduction.
Fewer files on your desk that should never have reached it.
Your committee time is scarce, and most of what arrives unsolicited is unbankable: equity promised but not paid in, no credible AOC path, an asset nobody has inspected. Our first job for a principal is to say, honestly, whether the file is bankable and on what terms — before it goes anywhere near you.
What we bring
- Bankability tested first: sponsors, equity, AOC path, jurisdiction — read the way a credit committee reads them.
- Assets that arrive documented: technical status, records, and an indicative range with its method published — the Repères Skyplo.
- Structures shaped for your mandate, Sharia-compliant formats included.
What we ask
- A clear credit box: asset types, vintages, jurisdictions, ticket sizes, the structures you do and the ones you do not.
- A fast no. It is worth as much to our principals as a yes.
- Feedback on why a file failed — it makes the next one better.
No fee flows between us. Ours comes from our principal, at closing; your margin is yours. What we exchange is time: ours spent qualifying, yours not wasted.
Your opinion of value, asked for at the right moment — and never bent.
You are usually called once positions have hardened, on incomplete records, by a party hoping for a particular number. We would rather bring you in at term-sheet stage, with the file in order, when an independent opinion still shapes the deal instead of arbitrating a dispute.
What we bring
- Instructions that arrive with the file ready: records status, engine and LLP data, lease terms — before you quote.
- A standing invitation to challenge the Repères Skyplo: our published ranges are meant to be contested by people who value aircraft for a living.
- Real files to calibrate against, across Airbus and Boeing narrow-bodies and their engines.
What we ask
- ISTAT or ASA certification, or an equivalent recognised designation.
- Coverage of our core ground: A320 family, 737NG and MAX, A330 — CFM56, V2500, LEAP, Trent.
- The freedom to tell us we are wrong — and the habit of using it.
You are instructed and paid by the party who needs the opinion — never by us, never on the outcome. An appraisal that depends on the closing is worth nothing to a credit committee; your independence is the asset.
Value lives in the records. We need people who can read them.
A pre-purchase inspection ordered late, on a vague scope, for a buyer in a hurry: that is how findings become disputes. We scope the technical work when the term sheet is written, against the lease or the purchase agreement it will be measured by.
What we bring
- Scoped instructions — records review, borescope, physical survey, redelivery audit — defined against the contract. See our redelivery checklist.
- Access arranged before you travel: aircraft location, records availability, operator cooperation.
- Recurring work across the life of a lease: delivery, mid-term, redelivery.
What we ask
- Approvals and experience on our core types — Part-145, Part-CAMO or equivalent; A320 family, 737, A330; CFM56, V2500, LEAP.
- Reports a credit committee and a lawyer can both use: a findings log, with rectification costing.
- Independence from the seller, stated in writing.
You are instructed and paid by the principal for the work done, whatever you find. A finding that stops a transaction has done its job.
Files that reach you qualified — not questions that reach you late.
Too often the lawyer is called once the letter of intent is signed and the problem is already in it: a governing-law clause nobody read, a registry nobody checked, a counterparty nobody screened. We would rather have you read the term sheet than repair it.
What we bring
- Files already through our first gate: principals identified, mandate evidenced, sanctions screening done — before you open a matter.
- Early involvement: at LOI stage, not at the closing table.
- Work in the jurisdictions we cover but do not practise in — the Gulf, North Africa, registries outside the Cape Town Convention.
What we ask
- A practice in aircraft finance and leasing: Cape Town and IDERA, repossession, export control, local registration.
- Fee proposals our principals can take to their own committee.
- Straight answers on what cannot be done.
You are engaged by the principal, under your own engagement letter and your own professional rules. We take no referral fee from counsel, and we offer none.
Cover placed before the closing week — not during it.
Insurance is the condition precedent everyone remembers last: certificate wording, the lessor's endorsement, additional insureds, war risks — the day before delivery. We know the parties, the operator, the asset and the jurisdiction at LOI stage. So can you.
What we bring
- Early sight of the transaction: parties, jurisdiction, operator and asset known weeks before delivery.
- The lessor's and financiers' insurance requirements gathered in one place, once.
- Introductions to operators entering a lease — start-up carriers included.
What we ask
- An aviation specialism: hull all risks, hull war, liability, contingent cover for lessors and financiers.
- The ability to place in our geographies: Europe, Middle East, North Africa.
- Certificates on time, in the wording the lease requires.
We place no insurance and take no share of brokerage. You work for your client under your own regulation; we make sure you are in the room early.
A standing need, not a one-off: every Skyplo transaction runs through you.
Deposits, rents and purchase prices never touch our accounts. That is not a preference, it is the mechanism: funds move through a specialised escrow agent, and title through the appropriate trust structure where the registry calls for one. We design that step in at LOI stage instead of improvising it before closing.
What we bring
- Transactions where the escrow step is written into the term sheet: deposit, release conditions, closing mechanics.
- Parties who already know why you are there — and who have already been through our own KYC.
- Repeat flow: the same mechanism on every mandate that closes.
What we ask
- An aviation specialism: closing mechanics, International Registry filings, registry practice.
- A published fee schedule and clear onboarding requirements.
- Responsiveness inside the closing window.
You are appointed by the parties and paid by them, on your own terms. Your neutrality is the whole point; we never ask for anything that would dent it.
Six rules. They apply to us first.
No exclusivity, either way
Mandate by mandate. You keep working with whoever you like, and so do we.
Terms in writing, every time
Before work starts — not once it has. No standing arrangement is implied by a first conversation.
Independence is protected
Appraisers, counsel, technical partners, insurers and escrow agents are paid by the principal — never by us, never on the outcome.
No hidden fees
Who pays whom is written down and disclosed. No fee from both sides without written disclosure to both, no chains of intermediaries.
Your name is yours
We publish no partner directory and never use a partner's name without consent. Files are shared under NCNDA.
Compliance applies to partners too
Identity, beneficial owners, sanctions screening — and no payment to a public official, ever.
Three steps, no ceremony.
First contact
The form below, or a direct note: who you are, what you do, where you operate.
A conversation
Thirty minutes. The files you want to see, what we actually cover, where the two overlap.
A first file
A concrete case rather than a pitch. Written terms when — and only when — there is a transaction.
An ecosystem is not built by one firm.
If a peer belongs here — an appraiser you trust, a lawyer you have closed with, a financier who says no quickly, an operator's adviser in a market we do not know — introduce them. Use the last field of the form, or simply reply to our first exchange. With or without a file attached, the introduction counts as much as applying yourself.
Introduce someone →Before you write.
Is there an exclusivity, a membership fee or a minimum volume?
No. There is no programme to join and nothing to pay. We work mandate by mandate, with terms agreed in writing each time, and no exclusivity in either direction.
Do you publish the names of your partners?
No. We keep no public directory and never use a partner's name without consent. Files are exchanged under NCNDA, and a counterparty's identity is released only once the other side is qualified.
How is a business introducer paid?
Under a written introducer agreement signed before anything moves. The introducer's share is paid out of our own success fee, at closing — signed and funded — and the introducer's role is disclosed to the principal. No payment is ever made to a public official or to an employee of a counterparty.
Do appraisers, counsel or technical partners pay or receive referral fees?
No, in either direction. They are instructed and paid by the principal for their work, whatever the outcome of the transaction. Their independence is what makes their opinion usable by a credit committee.
Do you co-broker with other brokers?
Yes, when each broker represents one side, says so, holds a written mandate and is paid by its own principal. We do not take part in chains of intermediaries.
Which aircraft and markets do you cover?
Commercial aircraft that carry lessor liquidity — A320 family, 737NG and MAX, A330, A350, 777, 787, A220 and E-Jets E2 — and CFM56, V2500, LEAP and Trent engines, across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Working languages: English and French.
Introduce yourself.
A few lines are enough. Tell us which seat is yours and where you operate — we come back to you personally.
- Business introducers
- Fellow brokers
- Financiers
- Certified appraisers
- Technical partners
- Aviation counsel
- Aviation insurance brokers
- Escrow agents & owner trustees