Building trust in aviation insurance and the strategy behind a specialist broker

Aviation insurance is often described as the balance sheet behind global connectivity. It is the risk capital that allows airlines to purchase aircraft, launch routes, and keep fleets flying through cycles of volatility war, pandemics, supply-chain shocks, and everything in between.

In its modern form, aviation insurance is less about a static policy and more about a living risk partnership, dynamic pricing and limits, sophisticated reinsurance structures, embedded risk-management bursaries, data-led loss prevention, and claims protocols that must be performed when stakes are highest.

That is the world in which AI12 was founded in 2022 positioning itself as a practitioner-led specialist brokerage built around aviation and complex risks. Operating from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and regulated by Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), AI12 serves over 100 clients in more than 60 countries across Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

To match aviation’s always-on operational reality, AI12 supports clients through a dedicated 24/7 service and crisis management unit, designed to keep decision-makers connected to brokerage, claims, and documentation support across time zones.

“We chose a simple standard for ourselves, clarity and fair dealing,” says Anvar Mullabekov, AI12’s Founder and CEO in an interview with Michael Jonga.

“In this market, relationships aren’t a privilege, they’re a responsibility. You earn trust only by delivering above expectations and you can lose credibility in a single misstep.”

From practitioner to broker: building on industry DNA

Mullabekov’s path to brokerage leadership runs through the industry itself. He has worked in airline commercial roles, set up a leasing platform in Ireland, signed airline contracts, and managed fuel, airport, and navigation agreements. That first-principles view on how an airline actually operates still anchors AI12’s approach.

The company’s proposition is deliberately built around dual fluency, professionals who understand insurance mechanics, and practitioners who understand aviation operations.

“It’s all about minimizing mistakes through analysis,” he says, referencing his time studying at Lloyd’s of London and completing executive modules in innovation and financial management (including at Stanford). “Aviation is numbers, deep learning, and scenario planning. You model where a business can go, and you prepare for those paths.”

In a class of risk where decisions are often operational before they are technical, that combined perspective shapes how placements are structured, negotiated, and serviced.

That mindset led directly to the company’s formation. “Some players treat the market like cat-and-mouse,” he says. “We wanted openness listening carefully to the client and bringing underwriters closer to real operational needs.”

The transition from operator to founder sharpened his focus. “I realized I was losing emotions and delusions,” he notes. “Leadership means responsibility, to clients whose interests you must protect, and to the people you hire because behind them are families. You don’t get many chances to fix a breach of trust.”

What makes aviation insurance “specialty” today

Despite its size and global importance, aviation insurance remains underserved by true specialists. Many placements are still handled as extensions of broader corporate portfolios, efficient on paper, but often too generic for aviation’s operational tempo, contractual complexity, and crisis-driven reality.

AI12 aims to address that gap, a dedicated aviation broker operating at the intersection of airline operations, lessor requirements, and global market capacity.

Specialty aviation risks are rarely cookie-cut. Hull and liability towers must reflect a carrier’s fleet mix, geographies, and operations; war and allied perils require a different cadence; lessor interests, financings, and covenants add another layer; and claims handling must be both rigorous and fast.

“These risks are unique,” Mullabekov says. “You analyze each placement as a stand-alone and then stitch it into a global structure. The difference versus traditional lines is the depth of expertise required at every level brokers, claims handlers, accountants, and senior management.”

Aviation risk is also contractual. Beyond traditional policy wordings, coverage frequently has to reconcile lease provisions, indemnities, cross-liability clauses, jurisdictional issues, and lender or lessor requirements, where a single clause can shift exposure materially. The firm leans into this complexity with aviation wordings expertise that bridges insurance contracts and the commercial agreements surrounding the aircraft.

AI12’s signature capability, he adds, is structuring multi-regional, multi-operation programs that integrate insurance and reinsurance in a single architecture. “We built one of the most complex aviation insurance programs on the market divided by region and type of operation, with a particularly sensitive Hull War section. It looks simple today, but it was hard to build.”

The broker’s role, in his telling, is part translator, part diplomat. “We share information in both directions,” he says. “Make messages simpler. Help clients and underwriters listen to each other. Deals don’t necessarily get ‘easier,’ but they become better understood.”

Scale, numbers and the compounding effect of experience

AI12 signed its first contract on March 6, 2023. In less than three years, the book has scaled quickly, though Mullabekov downplays market-share talk. “It’s still a small slice of the global pie,” he says. “What matters is that valuable partners believed in us early. By 2030, we have our own targets for global share but the focus is people. The colleagues who joined in 2023-2026 share a view of risk and bring the skills to manage complex placements.”

Competition is not his north star. “I love my competitors because of them, I have a job,” he laughs. “We listen to clients and do the work. That’s it.”

Tech that simplifies without losing the handshake

From day one, AI12 built on cloud infrastructure to avoid legacy constraints. The firm is rolling out digital process transformation and exploring AI-assisted analytics with team members trained in AI/ML at institutions including Stanford and MIT.

“You must be careful with AI, in establishing proper algorithms and process structures,” Mullabekov cautions. “We’re testing how to apply technology to risk analysis with markets. But the final stage remains in-person negotiation with underwriters and with airlines and operators. Tech should simplify and bring parties closer. It should not replace judgment.”In practice, that support is measured in response time. Aviation doesn’t wait for office hours, ad hoc lease scenarios arise mid-season, aircraft go tech, AOG events trigger immediate stakeholder pressure, and certificates can be needed at the last minute to protect dispatch, financing covenants, or contractual continuity.

The company positions its service model around these realities, staying close to the client and the market, with round-the-clock claims and documentation support when the operation is most exposed.

His view of the industry’s future is paradoxically historic. “We should simplify insurance almost back to how maritime traders pooled risk thousands of years ago,” he says. “Use new tech to make old principles mutuality, clarity, fairness work better.”

Trust, relationships, and the culture inside the firm

“Insurance is ultimately about expectations,” he says. “Most clients aren’t watching the cycle daily soft vs. hard markets. If you deliver above expectations, that’s where trust is built. And during a 12-month policy, if you secure improvements price or coverage that trust deepens.”

Internally, he looks for the same outcomes. “Some of our people deliver above my expectations,” he says. “They trade with clients on the same basis we promise the market clarity and fair dealing.”

AI12 has also invested beyond placement into risk-management programs more than 15 to date, including Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT), Upset Prevention Recovery Training (UPRT), Type Rating Refresher Training, Train-the-Trainer, Crisis and Safety Risk Management, CRM for pilots and cabin crew, and operational safety initiatives. “We often budget for safety improvements based on client size,” he notes. “It’s about delivering more value, not more paperwork.”

Regulated growth and a wider specialty footprint

AI12’s growth has been matched by formal regulatory milestones. The company has secured DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) establishment and DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority) authorization in Dubai key for global business development and market access from a major financial hub.

Non-aviation lines are being built with the same practitioner lens under Richard Prenter, AI12’s Chief Operating Officer and Head of Specialty, whose background spans underwriting, broking, and industry roles.

“We’re developing where we’re already present,” Mullabekov says. “We now have clients or partners in over 100 countries from Australia to Brazil, Egypt to Indonesia, Kazakhstan to Mexico. There are cultural nuances, but in practice everyone speaks the language of innovation. Needs are more similar than different.”

He is candid about ambition. “I have a separate plan for the U.S. the most difficult market,” he says. “It deserves its own project.”

The road ahead: digital opportunity, systemic risk

Asked for the biggest opportunity and the biggest risk in today’s market, he doesn’t hesitate. “Digital solutions are the opportunity the industry is still conservative,” he says. “The risk is the black swan global shocks we’ve seen before, unstable regions, pandemics, sudden constraints.”

And his advice to buyers? “Be open. Share information. Communicate as partners, not rivals. That’s how you get better results. At AI12, our job is to create that environment.”

There is, he adds with a smile, a personal operating system behind the company’s pace. “I ask my team if they’re planning or dreaming,” he says. “I plan in many directions. Then I multiply my plans by 12. Don’t ask me why. It’s a dream but it’s built on hard planning.”The post Building trust in aviation insurance and the strategy behind a specialist broker appeared first on AeroTime.

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