The Wicks Group has celebrated many achievements throughout the year, including the continued success of its consulting services work and the strengthening of its legal practice.
CONSULTING SERVICES
In our consulting practice, The Wicks Group added two major successes to its long list of IASA Category 1 accomplishments. These most recent achievements—in India and Cabo Verde—bring the total number of foreign civil aviation authorities that have achieved or maintained a Category 1 rating with TWG support to seven. This includes five Category 1 achievements in the past four years alone!
During the past two years, The Wicks Group undertook a specific work plan designed to return India to Category 1 status following the FAA’s audit of the DGCA. With USTDA funding, The Wicks Group team accomplished Category 1 in an extremely compressed timeframe and garnered especially strong commendation by representatives of the U.S. and Indian governments during this November’s U.S.-India Aviation Summit in Bangalore, India, as well as by the Secretary of Transportation when he announced the accomplishment in April of 2015. The Wicks Group is eager to further develop the DGCA as part of the firm’s Category 1 sustainment services in 2016.
In Cabo Verde, The Wicks Group had first helped attain Category 1 status in 2003 and this year we again provided extensive technical, legal, and political support in preparation for a new FAA IASA audit. Our work resulted in a successful FAA IASA audit of the Cabo Verde CAA. As in India, The Wicks Group’s efforts were crucial to the enhancement of the designee oversight system, carrier certification, and surveillance and enforcement programs.
In addition to IASA-related consulting work, The Wicks Group worked with a number of foreign governments and industry representatives toward the establishment of liberalized bilateral regimes with the United States. Our firm advised the State Aviation Authority of Ukraine and its industry stakeholders through the final stages of the negotiation process. The US-Ukraine Open Skies Agreement, which was ultimately signed in July, promises to advance civil aviation opportunities in both Ukraine and the United States.
Similarly, The Wicks Group has mentored the process of accession to an Open Skies Agreement between the Government of The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the United States. We expect good news in the first quarter of 2016 following an intergovernmental process. We also expect this to advance civil aviation opportunities in both Azerbaijan and the United States.
This year, we also continued our long-standing work for Japan’s aviation sector. Our consultants carried on the annual tradition of performing a rigorous aviation-related study for the Japan International Transport Institute, USA (JITI). JITI is an independent research institute that studies various kinds of US-Japan and international transportation issues. Our firm has performed numerous studies for JITI for the past 15 years. This year JITI retained The Wicks Group to evaluate the impact of Open Skies Agreements between the United States and other governments. This culminated in JITI hosting a series of highly successful seminars on Open Skies in both Washington, DC and Tokyo.
In 2015, we also supported the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau by assisting it in its ongoing efforts to harmonize its regulations with those of the United States. Our technical/regulatory consultants continue to assist the JCAB in harmonizing maintenance regulations with the FAA, with the goal of agreeing on maintenance implementation procedures between the two countries in the near future.
LEGAL SERVICES
During this past year, The Wicks Group continued to strengthen its legal practice with a substantial increase in the area of international commercial aircraft transactions. Our firm served as lead counsel in a precedent setting international aircraft transaction. In addition to serving as transaction counsel in the aircraft sale and financing arrangements, The Wicks Group also served as the successful lead counsel in the litigation of a disputed sale transaction for a private A319 aircraft that involved the international registrar and Irish courts as well as courts in New York and Oklahoma. The precedent established a streamlined legal proceeding for addressing the abuse of the international registrar.
In addition, The Wicks Group continues its work on behalf of Azerbaijan Airlines and Silk Way Airlines, with this work being both regulatory and transactional in nature. Notably, in connection with the sale of a B767-32LF aircraft to Federal Express Corporation, The Wicks Group introduced the parties and then its attorneys led the negotiation of the purchase and sale transaction and managed the closing process. In addition, our regulatory experts coordinated the process for the importation of the aircraft into the United States. Our firm’s transactional attorneys also worked on multiple U.S. Export-Import Bank supported commercial aircraft transactions that covered both cargo and passenger airlines. Our attorneys also led the transactions for placing the aircraft into bridge financing arrangements pending Export-Import support, utilizing the Bermuda orphan trust arrangement to facilitate transition of the assets to the Ex-Im structure.
As part of its long-standing regulatory practice, The Wicks Group continued to regularly assist multiple foreign carriers in all aspects of their US operations. In addition to the 2014 startups of Ukraine International Airlines and Azerbaijan Airlines passenger services to New York JFK International Airport, this year we successfully ensured the startup of Silk Way West Airlines all-cargo scheduled service to JFK, as well as the addition of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner equipment to Azerbaijan Airlines JFK operations. Following the signing of the US-Ukraine Open Skies Agreement, The Wicks Group has also assisted CAVOK AIR, a Ukrainian cargo charter carrier, in starting its US cargo charter operations.
In the Airports sector, The Wicks Group continues to represent AvPorts, its longest standing firm client, at multiple airports in the United States and also carry out work for numerous individual Airports, including most notably in Westchester County, NY and Teterboro, NJ.
Finally, and certainly not in the least, The Wicks Group served as Association Counsel for the International Packaging Association of North America (IPANA) where it advised on Hazardous Materials Transportation, OSHA, Antitrust, and other issues related to manufacture and sale and transportation of bulk and intermediate packaging. The Wicks Group was also honored to serve as PHMSA counsel for North Coast Container, one of its members.
With this banner year full of accomplishments, The Wicks Group is looking forward to 2016 the exciting work on behalf our clients. We wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2016!