Ireland offers the leasing companies favourable costs for registering their aircraft in the country. Bahamas and Bermuda are other such countries but do not have the leasing company home office base that Ireland does stemming from the old GPA days.
Most leased aircraft are registered in the country of their operation, and you would never know they were leased without looking at the plate, but there are some where this is not a good course. This can be for a range of reasons such as avoidance of substantial import duty. It is for this reason that all of the Western-built aircraft supplied to Russia in recent years are registered outside the country.
Another reason is avoiding difficulties repossessing the aircraft if the airline fails to keep up with payments. Some countries have legal processes which make it difficult for a foreign finance source to recover home-registered assets from a national business. I believe Italy falls into this category.
Last edited by WHBM; 1st Feb 2007 at 08:39.