In a setback for the aviation insurance industry, the Commercial High Court of England and Wales in London has rejected claims by Chubb European Group and Fidelis Insurance Ireland to recover about USD340 million from various war risk underwriters over payouts linked to aircraft lost to lessors following Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine.

In a ruling on May 13, 2026, the court dismissed the insurers' bid to recoup money paid to lessors AerCap and Merx Aviation Finance under contingent war risk policies. Chubb had paid USD57.6 million to AerCap and reached a separate settlement with Merx, while Fidelis had paid USD240 million to AerCap and about USD50 million to Merx.

This followed a June 2025 judgment by the same court that had found Chubb and Fidelis liable under contingent war risk cover for losses involving Western-leased aircraft operated by Russian airlines and effectively stranded in Russia.

In the latest case, [Case No: CL-2025-000301 and CL-2025-000406] entitled "the Russian aircraft litigation - operator policy claims", the underwriters applied to the court to strike out or obtain summary judgment dismissing the contribution claims brought against them by Chubb and Fidelis.

Chubb and Fidelis argued that the war risk underwriters should have paid first and that the lessors would not have needed to claim under contingent cover had those insurers met their obligations. They said that because they stepped in only after the war risk insurers failed to pay, they were entitled to recover those sums through indemnity or contribution claims.

However, the court rejected that argument, finding that payments by Chubb and Fidelis did not cancel out the operator war risk underwriters' liabilities to the lessors. The court, therefore, could not support direct reimbursement claims. Instead, any remedy would have to be pursued through subrogation (meaning claims brought in the name of the insured parties), rather than directly by the insurers themselves.