Abundant capacity, high levels of competition, limited lossactivity and an aggressive broking community will benefit airlineinsurance buyers renewing in the final quarter of 2013, accordingto the Q3 Issue of Airline Insight, from Willis GroupHoldings the global risk adviser, insurance and reinsurancebroker.Consolidation inthe airline industry together with the migration of renewal datesto later in the year has created a concentration of renewalactivity in the final six weeks of 2013. The sheer volume ofrenewals and competition at this time of year means that buyers arelikely to achieve significant premium reductions.As well as asharp rise in the number of programmes renewing in the finalquarter, the overall size of programmes has increased. In thisrespect, a number of the largest airline programmes, both in the USand China, come to market between now and the end of theyear.“Insurers’ desireto participate on the world’s blue chip airlines will continue tokeep competition in this area high,” said Phil Smaje, CEO of WillisAerospace. “The consolidation that has taken place in recent yearshas created a smaller number of very large programmes ofsignificant interest to the market.”Another factorexpected to accelerate the slide in premiums is the industry’ssafety record which, despite some losses, remains very good.Total hull lossesin the airline industry to October amounted to approximately US$615million. Meanwhile, liability losses in the same period were of theorder of US$226 million. Willis estimates that overall insurancelosses in the airline sector in 2013 will be US$1.2 billion,including a pro-rata estimate of “attritional losses”.“Despite manybelieving the market couldn’t go any lower than it has in recentyears, the low loss levels, plentiful capacity and growth inexposures will continue to provide ideal conditions for buyers andchallenges for underwriters,” said Smaje.