[thorn bird]

A little piece in the Australian newspaper business section on Wed dec 14.

"Allianz to shut local aviation insurance unit"

I always wondered why aircraft insurance premiums were so high here compared with the USA. The premiums for a $50 million BBJ in the USA were about comparable with a $1 million metro in Australia.

Now a cynic would say insurance companies are masters at assessing risk and given Australia's real safety record    (not CAsA's made up one) compared with the USA is so abysmal they needed higher premiums to mitigate the risk.

The article is a good one by Mitch Bingemann because unlike a lot of journo's he's obviously asked a few questions.

Some snipits from the article.

"The closure points to the continued decline of the nation's once-thriving general aviation sector, which has been progressively smothered by the cost of red tape".

"This is not just about Allianz pulling out of the market because of the declining economics of the business model. It's also about the decline of general aviation in Australia." a source within Allianz told the Australian.

" Realistically there is too much underwriting capacity in Australia for the general aviation sector, which is clearly not a boom industry. And frankly, the way the regulator behaves is resulting in general aviation's decline and is a reason why the industry is in such bad shape".

There you go do nuttin Darren, even the insurance companies are deserting the sinking ship.