Aviation Insurance

Personal Aviation Insurance

Aviation insurance is one of the few personal policies with a genuine legal minimum behind it — and one of the few where that minimum is so far below the real exposure that quoting it is almost misleading. A privately owned aircraft under 2,268 kilograms is required to carry five hundred thousand dollars of public liability and, remarkably, no passenger liability at all. This page covers what the regulations actually say, how the hull is valued and settled, what the pilot warranty on your policy is really asking of you, and who in this country will write the risk.

Get an Aviation Insurance Quote

What Aviation Insurance Covers

Aviation insurance pairs physical damage cover on the machine with liability cover for what it does to other people. It is written for pleasure and business use — the owner’s own flying — and it is underwritten around three things: the aircraft, how it is used, and who is at the controls.

  • Hull, all risks ground and flight. Physical damage to the airframe, engines, propellers and avionics whether parked, taxiing or airborne. The alternative, ground risk hull, covers the aircraft only while it is not in motion — and specifically not while taxiing under its own power, which is where a surprising share of damage happens.
  • Public liability. Injury and property damage caused to people and property outside the aircraft. The Canadian Aviation Regulations set a floor by weight; almost every owner should be well above it.
  • Passenger liability. Injury or death of the people on board, plus defence costs. Whether this is written as a per-seat sub-limit or folded into a single combined limit is one of the most consequential lines on the policy.
  • Non-owned aircraft. Hull and liability cover when you fly something you do not own — a club aircraft, a rental, a friend’s machine, or the type you are transitioning onto before your own arrives.
  • Hangar, premises and hangarkeepers. The building, the tools and equipment inside it, your liability arising from the premises, and your legal liability for other people’s aircraft stored or moved in your hangar.
  • Wreckage removal and recovery. Getting the aircraft off a beach, out of a field or back from wherever it came to rest. It is rarely the headline coverage and it is regularly the one that surprises people.
Privately owned aircraft on a winter ramp covered by aviation insurance

What the Regulations Actually Require

Section 606.02 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations is the reason aviation insurance is not optional. It is also widely misquoted, including by sources that ought to know better.

Public liability, set by weight

For a privately owned aircraft the minimum is one hundred thousand dollars at or under 1,043 kg, five hundred thousand up to 2,268 kg, one million up to 5,670 kg, two million up to 34,020 kg, and three million above that. Those are floors written for the smallest possible claim, not guidance on what to buy.

The passenger gap nobody mentions

Private owners must carry passenger liability of three hundred thousand dollars per installed seat — but only on aircraft over 2,268 kg. Below that weight, which is most of the general aviation fleet, there is no mandated passenger cover at all. The people most likely to be sitting beside you are the ones the regulation does not require you to insure.

Proof rides with the aircraft

Evidence of the insurance has to be carried on board any time the aircraft is operated. Not in the hangar, not in the filing cabinet at home — on board.

The figures you find online are often the wrong ones

A separate regulation sets much higher, inflation-indexed limits for commercial air carriers licensed by the Canadian Transportation Agency. Those numbers get quoted as though they applied to private owners. They do not, and confusing the two leads people to assume they are far better covered than they are.

How the Hull Is Valued and Settled

Hull cover in aviation insurance works differently from anything else in a personal portfolio, and the differences all show up on the day of the claim rather than the day of the quote.

Agreed value is the norm

You and the underwriter fix the insured value when the policy is written. On a total loss the agreed amount is paid less the deductible, with no depreciation argument and no debate about what the market would have paid. The insurer takes the salvage.

All risks, or only while parked

All risks ground and flight is the full form. Ground risk hull — not in motion — is the budget alternative and it stops the moment the aircraft moves under its own power. Owners who fly rarely sometimes choose it; owners who taxi at all should understand exactly what they are giving up.

Constructive total loss

Where repair costs approach the agreed value — commonly somewhere in the region of three quarters of it, though the threshold is insurer-specific — the underwriter can declare the aircraft a write-off and settle rather than repair. That decision is theirs, not yours.

Life-limited parts settle pro rata

Engines and propellers are paid on remaining useful life, not replacement cost. A ten thousand dollar propeller seventy per cent of the way through its overhaul life settles at three thousand, and the owner funds the difference. This surprises more people than any other clause in the policy.

Betterment coverage exists

That pro-rata deduction can be bought out. If you are flying behind a high-time engine, ask what betterment cover costs before you need it rather than after the prop strike.

Upgrade the aircraft, upgrade the value

A panel refit, a new interior or an engine overhaul all change what the aircraft is worth. Agreed values can be increased mid-term on production of the invoices — but only if you tell us. An insured value set three avionics generations ago is simply wrong.

Liability: Limits, and Why the Structure Matters

Two aviation insurance policies can show the same headline liability number and behave completely differently when a single passenger is seriously hurt. The difference is in how the limit is carved up.

  • A combined single limit is one pot of money. Public and passenger liability share the whole limit, and any one claimant can reach all of it. This is what you want.
  • A per-passenger sub-limit is several small pots. The policy may show a large overall figure while capping what any individual passenger can recover at a fraction of it. A serious spinal or head injury to one person will exceed that cap without difficulty, and the balance comes from your own assets.
  • The statutory minimum is not a target. Five hundred thousand dollars of public liability on a light single is a floor set decades ago. Owners routinely carry one, two or five million, and the step up costs far less than the first million did.
  • Passenger cover is a choice below 2,268 kg. Because the regulations do not require it on lighter aircraft, it is possible to be perfectly legal and carry nothing for the people in the other seats. Read your own declarations page before you assume otherwise.
  • Excess sits above, not inside. Where an owner needs more than the primary market will write, the additional limit is arranged as a dedicated excess aviation insurance layer placed on top of the primary policy — not bolted onto anything else you own.

Your personal umbrella will not help

Personal umbrella and excess liability policies exclude aviation almost without exception. The exclusion is deliberate: the severity profile of an aviation claim is nothing like the auto and home exposures those policies are priced for. Excess aviation limits have to be bought from an aviation market.

What we ask at renewal

Hours flown this year, any change in pilots, upgrades or overhauls since the last renewal, where the aircraft is now hangared, and whether the flying has moved — more instrument work, more cross-border, a new type. Twenty minutes, once a year.

Pilot Warranties: Who Is Allowed to Fly It

The pilot warranty is the condition most owners skim, and it is one of the most common grounds on which an aviation insurance claim is contested. It defines who may operate the aircraft with cover in force, and it is a condition of the policy rather than a recommendation.

The open pilot clause

Rather than naming everyone, the policy sets a standard any pilot must meet. On a Canadian piston programme that typically runs to around two hundred and fifty hours total command time, twenty-five hours in the make and model, an age ceiling, and a clean record over the previous five years.

Turbines ask for more

A turbine open pilot standard commonly requires several hundred hours of command time, a substantial block of it turbine, and time specifically in the model. Recurrent training is frequently a condition of cover rather than a discount on it.

Named pilots and endorsements

Where a pilot cannot meet the open standard — a low-time owner, a new type, a partner joining the aircraft — they can usually be added by name with an amendment. What does not work is assuming an unlisted pilot who falls short of the warranty is covered because they had your permission.

Breach is a coverage question, not a discount

If the pilot at the controls did not meet the warranty, the insurer treats that as a failure of a condition of the aviation insurance rather than a rating error to be adjusted afterwards. It is the reason a checkout in a new type is worth arranging before the first flight rather than after.

Floats, Skis, Amateur-Built and Vintage

A meaningful share of the flying in this province happens on floats, on skis, or behind an engine the owner installed themselves. All of it is insurable. Not all of it is insurable everywhere, and the aviation insurance market is narrower for these types than for a factory-built single.

  • Seaplanes and amphibians are placeable, through a shorter list. At least one market writing pleasure and business aircraft in this country covers seaplane, amphibious and ski-equipped aircraft explicitly on its Canadian form. Several of the broad retail programmes are silent on floats, which in practice means the risk gets referred rather than accepted over the counter.
  • Skis change the operation, not just the gear. Off-airport surfaces, variable ice and remote strips are a different exposure from paved runways, and underwriters price and question them that way. Be specific about where you actually land.
  • Amateur-built aircraft can be insured. Liability cover, and hull cover in most cases, is available through specialist markets and through an association programme written for Canadian builders. What underwriters want to see is the same thing an inspector does: build quality, documentation and time flown off.
  • Advanced ultralights have their own programme. Cover is arranged through a dedicated association scheme rather than the mainstream aircraft market. Basic ultralights are excluded from most retail private aircraft programmes outright.
  • Vintage and ex-military go to specialists. Warbirds are excluded by name from broad retail programmes. They are still placeable, but through markets that will want type-specific experience and often a mentored checkout before you fly it alone.
Owner-flown aircraft in a hangar insured under an aviation insurance policy

Rented, Borrowed and Club Aircraft

Not owning the aircraft does not mean not carrying the risk. This is the aviation insurance gap most pilots do not know they have.

The club’s policy is the club’s policy

A flying club or flight school insures its own operation — its aircraft, its approved pilots, its rules. That policy is not built to protect you, and after a loss the club’s insurer may pursue the renter for what it paid out. Most rental agreements also make the renter responsible for the deductible whatever happens.

Non-owned cover is a real product

Renter pilot policies exist in this country and cover both your liability and your responsibility for damage to the aircraft you were flying. If you rent regularly, or you are building time toward your own aircraft, it costs very little relative to what it answers for.

Fractional shares and jet cards

A programme operator’s limits are shared across every owner on the fleet and may not follow you onto a third-party aircraft flown under the same card. Personal non-owned and excess liability is how that gap gets closed.

Where a Personal Policy Stops

A pleasure and business aviation insurance policy is written for the owner’s own flying. Six things take an aircraft outside it, and every one of them is a conversation to have before the flight rather than after the claim.

Instruction given for hire

Teaching in your own aircraft — even informally, even for a friend, even at cost — is instruction. It is a different use category with a different rating and it does not come included.

Rental and leaseback

Putting the aircraft on a club or school line, or renting it to anyone at all, changes who is flying it and how often. It is sold as a separate product for exactly that reason.

Carrying passengers or freight for hire

The moment money changes hands for the transportation itself, the flight is commercial. That is a regulatory reclassification before it is an insurance one, and a personal policy will not follow you there.

Aerial work

Survey, photography for hire, banner towing, spraying and the rest are a defined commercial category in the regulations. A private policy does not respond to any of it.

Territory

Where the aircraft may be operated is a policy term. Cross-border and Caribbean flying is commonly available but is not automatic, and it varies by insurer. Get the territorial wording confirmed in writing before the trip, not from memory.

War, wear and the things no policy covers

War, hijacking, pollution and radioactive contamination exclusions are permitted by the regulations even in a policy written to satisfy the legal minimum. Wear, tear and mechanical deterioration are not insured perils anywhere in the class — the policy answers to sudden events.

Who Actually Writes This in Canada

This is the part owners find out too late. Aviation insurance is a specialist class placed by a short list of markets, and how you approach them determines what you are able to buy.

The panel is small

Canadian private aviation insurance is written by a handful of specialists — the global aerospace underwriters, a small number of dedicated Canadian programmes, and association schemes backed by those same markets. The mainstream Canadian composite insurers you know from home and auto do not write this class at all.

The first broker in blocks the rest

In specialty aviation an underwriter will normally quote one broker per aircraft. Sending your renewal to three brokers does not produce three markets — it produces one broker holding your best market and two who have been locked out of it. In a panel this short, that matters more here than almost anywhere.

What we need to approach them

Aircraft make, model, year, registration and serial, avionics and modifications, current airworthiness and maintenance status, an accurate value, ownership structure and any lender interest, and a full history for every pilot who will fly it. Assembled properly the first time, that submission is what gets you terms rather than a decline.

Frequently Asked Questions About Aviation Insurance

Yes. Aviation insurance is required under section 606.02 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations, which requires the owner of a Canadian-registered aircraft to carry public liability insurance, with the minimum set by maximum permissible take-off weight — one hundred thousand dollars at or under 1,043 kg, five hundred thousand up to 2,268 kg, one million up to 5,670 kg, two million up to 34,020 kg, and three million above that. Proof of the coverage has to be carried on board whenever the aircraft is operated.

Only above 2,268 kg. Private owners of aircraft over that weight must carry three hundred thousand dollars of passenger liability per installed seat. Below it — which covers most of the general aviation fleet, including almost every single-engine piston aircraft — the regulations require nothing at all for the people on board. It is the single largest gap between what the law asks for and what an owner actually needs, and it is worth checking your own policy rather than assuming.

Because they are usually the wrong ones. A separate regulation administered by the Canadian Transportation Agency sets much higher, inflation-indexed liability minimums for licensed commercial air carriers, and those figures circulate widely as though they applied to private aircraft. They do not. The fixed figures in 606.02 are what governs a privately owned aircraft flown for pleasure and business.

In aviation insurance the insured value of the hull is fixed between you and the underwriter when the policy is written, and on a total loss that agreed amount is paid less the deductible with no depreciation applied. The insurer keeps the salvage. It removes the argument about what the aircraft was worth at exactly the moment nobody wants to be having it — which is why almost all private aircraft hull cover in this country is written this way.

More than most owners expect. Life-limited components — engines and propellers in particular — are settled on remaining useful life rather than replacement cost. A ten thousand dollar propeller seventy per cent of the way through its overhaul life settles at around three thousand dollars, and you fund the rest. Betterment coverage can be bought to remove that pro-rata deduction, and it is worth pricing before the engine gets old rather than after.

It is the standard any pilot must meet under your aviation insurance to fly the aircraft with cover in force, used instead of naming every individual. On a typical Canadian piston programme that means roughly two hundred and fifty hours of total command time, twenty-five hours in the make and model, an age limit and a clean five-year record; turbine standards are considerably higher. A pilot who cannot meet it can usually be added by name — but a pilot who simply had your permission and fell short of the warranty is a coverage problem, not a rating one.

Not automatically, and not by the club’s policy. A flying club or school insures its own operation, and its insurer may pursue a renter for what it pays out after a loss; most rental agreements also make the renter responsible for the deductible. Non-owned aviation insurance — a renter pilot policy — is a real and inexpensive product in this country, and it is the right answer if you rent regularly or are building time toward your own aircraft.

No. Personal umbrella and excess liability policies exclude aviation almost without exception, and the exclusion is deliberate rather than an oversight — the severity of an aviation claim has nothing in common with the home and auto exposures those policies are built around. If you need limits above what the primary aircraft policy provides, they have to be arranged as a dedicated excess layer through an aviation insurance market.

Yes, though through a shorter list of aviation insurance markets. At least one insurer writing pleasure and business aircraft in Canada covers seaplane, amphibious and ski-equipped aircraft explicitly, and amateur-built aircraft can be placed both through specialist markets and through an association programme written for Canadian builders. Advanced ultralights have their own dedicated scheme. Warbirds and basic ultralights are excluded from the broad retail programmes and need a specialist approach.

It falls outside a pleasure and business policy. Instruction given for hire, putting the aircraft on a rental or leaseback line, carrying passengers or freight for money, and aerial work such as survey or photography for hire are all separate use categories with separate rating — and in the case of commercial carriage, a separate regulatory regime entirely. Each is placeable; none is included by default.

Because in aviation insurance an underwriter will normally quote only one broker per aircraft, and Canada’s panel of private aviation markets is short. Sending the same renewal to several brokers does not create competition — it locks brokers out of markets and can leave you with fewer real options than you started with. The submission is better assembled once, properly, and taken to the market in a planned order.

Secure the aircraft and the people first, meet your reporting obligations to the authorities, and call us before you authorise any repair, recovery or salvage work. Photograph the aircraft and the site, keep the maintenance and journey logs together, and note who was at the controls and their qualifications. Recovery and wreckage removal decisions taken in the first day have a habit of shaping the whole claim.

Private aircraft hangared under an aviation insurance policy

Related Personal Insurance Coverages

An aircraft rarely sits alone in a portfolio. These are the coverages most owners hold alongside it, and coordinating them with the aviation insurance is where the gaps get closed.

For everything else the household carries, and how the pieces are reviewed together, see personal insurance.

Schedule a Consultation Today

Personalized insurance and surety solutions backed by decades of industry expertise.
Reach out to us today and experience the Stanhope difference!

Get Started
Linkedin Youtube Facebook-f Instagram