Treating the aircraft as an immovable property is the most peculiar phenomenon that the air transport industry could have ever seen. It is a Pandora’s Box as it creates regulatory and legal anomalies, particularly, when the aircraft becomes an object of a cross-border transaction, lease and/or the state registration. Paradoxical court rules emerging as a result of such transactions, result in ambiguities in connection with the nature of an immovable property per se; choice of law; and the way in which such property is being treated.
These anomalies have to be addressed, analyzed and resolved. Therefore, this article is a call-to-action to do so with focus on Kazakhstan laws, international conventions and inter-governmental treaties. Through the aircraft registration concept of Article 83bis of the Convention of International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), the article attempts to identify key problematic issues that this provision entails. In particular, emphasis is placed on the importance of not merely enjoying the rights given by Article 83bis, but rather, on accentuating the ability of individual states to offer operationally, legally and commercially safe and certain environment.