The collapse of Passaredo Linhas Aéreas (currently known as "VOEPASS") in the beginning of 2025 has exposed a weakness, at the trial court level, in Brazil's legal framework for international aviation finance, revealing violations of both the Cape Town Convention and its Aircraft Protocol (together, the “CTC”) and the domestic bankruptcy law. VOEPASS is a regional airline that operated with ten leased ATRs aircraft in early 2025.
In a highly anticipated decision issued last Thursday (on December 19, 2019), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in In re Millennium Lab Holdings II, LLC that a bankruptcy court may constitutionally confirm a chapter 11 plan of reorganization that contains nonconsensual third-party releases. The court considered whether, pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462 (2011), Article III of the United States Constitution prohibits a bankruptcy court from granting such releases.
Introduction