Only 136 Clients Behind 302 Aviation Deals: Buyers Hold the Leverage

A general counsel at an airline, lessor or airport operator who compares aviation law firms is buying from the narrowest client base in our deal records. Sartori & Partners data show 302 aviation deals in the 12 months to October 2026, spread across 136 distinct clients: the shortest client list of any industry we track. That works out to 2.2 deals per client. For the firms, an aviation client is a repeat buyer rather than a single mandate. For the client, that repeat flow is something it can put a price on.

Set beside its neighbors, the aviation list is short. Transportation and logistics produced 423 deals for 225 clients, or 1.9 deals per client. Aerospace and defense produced 644 deals for 328 clients, or 2.0 per client. Aviation, with fewer clients than either, sits above both at 2.2. Banks and financial institutions return more often still, at 2.6 deals per client, but across 1,314 clients, a far wider base.

An aviation client comes back for more than two deals a year on average (2.2), and the firm that handles the first financing wants the next one. That is the buyer's bargaining chip. Volume commitments, blended rates across a year of work and fixed fees for repeat documentation are reasonable requests from a client that brings this pattern of work.

In Sartori & Partners deal records, capital markets work appears on 35.8% of aviation deals, against 25.7% across all deals, a gap of 10.1 points. Banking and lending appears on 7.6% of aviation deals against 3.3% market-wide; that figure rests on 23 deals, so treat it as a rough size. Every share here divides deals of one type by all aviation deals, labeled or not, so each is read on its own and none are added together.

The lawyers on the deals tell the same story. Capital markets lawyers worked on 38.1% of aviation deals against 26.4% of all deals, and banking and finance lawyers on 10.3% against 6.3%. Disputes sit a little below the market, at 21.9% of aviation deals against 25.0%. On capital markets work aviation falls between transportation and logistics, at 22.9%, and banks and financial institutions, at 48.8%: closer to a finance sector than its transport neighbors suggest.

The panel an airline or lessor needs is therefore a financing panel first: securities offerings, aircraft-backed debt and bank lending. A firm pitched on general corporate strength should show its aviation financing record before its acquisition record.

Where a value is disclosed, on 23.2% of aviation deals, the median deal is $747.5 million. Transportation and logistics discloses a value on 19.1% of its deals, with a median of $600 million. The median is $500 million in aerospace and defense and $660 million for banks and financial institutions. Disclosed deals are a minority everywhere, so the median describes the deals that publish a figure, not every deal in the sector.

Large tickets on a short client list mean each aviation mandate weighs heavily on the books of the firm that wins it. A client with that profile can ask for senior partner time on every financing, not only on the first one, and can expect the answer to be yes.

The firms that advised on the most aviation deals sit close together. Latham & Watkins heads the list in the 11-20 band, and every firm from first to tenth falls in either the 11-20 or the 6-10 band of deals advised. For banks and financial institutions, by contrast, the firm at the head of the list sits in the 151-250 band.

No firm in the top 10 stands clear of the others on deal count, which works in the buyer's favor. Several firms already handle aviation work at a similar volume, so a client can concentrate its financings with one or two of them without giving up depth, and can move work between them if terms slip. With 136 clients feeding the whole group, a firm has little room to lose one.

Aviation deal work is handled from New York more than from any other city. Lawyers in New York worked on 38.6% of aviation deals with a known lawyer location, against 23.2% of transportation and logistics deals. Lawyers in Washington, DC worked on 18.0% of aviation deals against 8.4% in transportation and logistics, and lawyers in London on 18.0% against 16.6%. One deal can involve lawyers in several cities, so the shares overlap.

Lateral hiring points somewhere else. Our companion report on the aviation lawyer bench finds that the aviation lawyers who change firms are mostly associates and join in London most often, while the deals themselves run most often through New York. For a company headquartered in Europe or Asia, a panel firm's New York and Washington offices can be expected on its financings even when the relationship partner sits elsewhere. Ask who in those offices will staff the deal.

The aviation deal count rose 23.6% year on year: 309 deals in the latest settled 12 months against 250 a year earlier. The whole deal market rose 10.6% over the same windows, and the transportation and logistics count held flat (+3.1%).

More aviation work arriving through the same short list of buyers strengthens each buyer's hand. A firm that already holds an airline's financings has more to keep this year than last, which makes the coming panel review a good moment to ask for better terms.

Sartori & Partners figures point to a buyer's market for the companies that generate aviation deals. With 136 clients in the sector and 2.2 deals each on average, an airline or lessor should treat its financing pipeline as one package, not a series of separate mandates. Consolidate the panel around the firms that already run your offerings and loans, and price the year rather than the deal. Test any firm from the list above on its financing teams in New York and Washington, the two cities whose lawyers worked on the largest shares of aviation deals. Before the next review, count your own deals of the past 12 months and set them against the sector's average: a client above it should ask for more than a standard rate card.