Aircraft Redelivery and Lease Return: How to Run the Open Items List

OIL-027. ATA 72, category Engines, location engine 2, HPT stage 1. ExampleLessor's representative watched the borescope of MSN-EXAMPLE-014's second engine on the hangar monitor and wants the blades looked at again, with the recording kept this time. Nobody disputes what was seen. The argument is about who pays for the second inspection, and whether a written report is enough to close the item.

An aircraft redelivery checklist tells you what to inspect. The open items list (OIL) is where every gap between the aircraft and the lease's return conditions is written down, given an owner, fixed, evidenced and agreed closed. A return and a delivery run through the same phases: records review, physical inspection, engines, cabin, ground runs or a test flight, and technical acceptance. Every phase feeds that one list. Each item needs a reference, an ATA chapter, a location, a category, an owner, evidence of closure and the other party's agreement. Below: the phases, a column template with example rows, the daily reconciliation with the lessor's representative, and what "closed" should mean.

What happens during an aircraft redelivery or delivery

The lease sets the return conditions, the notice periods, which inspections are required, who witnesses them and who pays for what. Planning starts well before the aircraft reaches the hangar. The phases below are common practice; their order and overlap vary from one transaction to the next.

The same phases run in the other direction when ExampleAir takes an aircraft on. ExampleAir's technical representative is then the receiving side and raises the items, and the lessor or the previous operator does the fixing.

Nothing in the EASA rules sets a lease's return conditions. They are commercial terms, and the contract governs them. The records are where regulation comes in. Part-M has a point on transferring the continuing-airworthiness records when an aircraft moves permanently from one owner or operator to another (M.A.307). The guide to component records and life-limited parts quotes it and shows what those records hold, and the release to service and records guide covers the record system the status reports come from.

Why the open items list is the centre of the negotiation

The check package, the records audit and the borescope all produce findings. The list is where each finding becomes a decision. Is it a return condition or not? Who fixes it? Who pays? What proves it is fixed? Does the other side agree? Any settlement at the end for items not rectified, where the lease allows one, is argued item by item from the same list.

A vague item cannot be closed, and an item with no owner does not get fixed. Every discrepancy needs six things:

• An owner. A party and a named person. "Lessee" is not an owner; "ExampleAir technical records, the records lead" is.
• A location. Where on the aircraft, or which document in which box. Without it, the person who fixes the item and the person who checks it look in different places.
• An ATA chapter. It routes the item to the right specialist and ties it to the task cards in the check package.
• A category. Records, Physical, Cabin, Engines or Other. It splits the list into workstreams, because the records team, the hangar, the engine shop and the cabin vendor work in parallel.
• Evidence of closure. The work order, the release certificate, the borescope report, the corrected status sheet, the photograph. Agree what counts before the work starts, not after.
• Agreement from the other party. In their words, with a name and a date. Without it, the item is only closed on your side of the table.

Open items list template: columns and example rows

These are the columns worth keeping, whatever tool holds the list.

Here is part of the list for MSN-EXAMPLE-014, returning from ExampleAir to ExampleLessor, with the return check at ExampleMRO. The rows are fictional.

Two rows show the point. OIL-015 is Done but not closed: the fix is complete and the evidence is attached, but the lessor's representative has not decided yet. OIL-027 shows why "who pays" belongs on the item. The technical work is simple, and the dispute will hold the item open longer than the work does.

How to run the daily reconciliation with the lessor's representative

Meet at the same time every day: the lessor's representative, the operator's technical lead and the MRO's project lead. Work from one list that all three can see, not from three copies of a spreadsheet that drift apart by the middle of the week. The article on rebuilding tracking spreadsheets as registers and trackers covers the general case.

1. New items. Read each one out. Agree the wording, ATA chapter, location, category, owner and due date before it leaves the room. Split an item that needs two different fixes.
2. Items at Done. Look at the evidence together. If it satisfies, the other party agrees and the item closes. If not, the reason goes on the item in that party's words, and the item is not closed.
3. Items that did not move. Ask the owner for a date, not a reason.
4. Disputed items. Write both positions on the item, hand it to the people who can settle it, and keep it on the list until they do.
5. Items that threaten the acceptance date. Name them, and say what has to happen by when.
6. Issue the list. Export it with the date and send it the same day. That version is what everyone works from tomorrow.

A few rules keep the list honest:

• A reference is never reused or deleted. A duplicate, or an item raised in error, is closed with the reason, and the party that raised it agrees.
• The discrepancy stays as found. Positions and arguments go in the item's trail, not in the description. Evidence vs interpretation sets out the same discipline for audit findings.
• Record the other party's words, not your summary of them. "Accepted, subject to copy of release certificate in box 12" is a decision. "Lessor OK" is not.
• A photograph is evidence only if someone else can tell what it shows, where, and when.

What "closed" should mean, and who agrees it

Keep two states apart. Done means the party doing the work says it is finished and the evidence is on the item. Closed means the receiving party has reviewed that evidence and agreed. If one person can take an item from Open to Closed alone, the list stops meaning anything.

The receiving party is the lessor on a return and the operator on a delivery. Agree at kick-off who signs off for each side, and whether the representative can accept on the spot or has to refer items back. The lease and the transaction documents set who has that authority. The list only records that they used it.

An item closes in one of three ways, and each needs the other party's agreement on the item:

• Rectified. The fix is done and the evidence is attached.
• Carried forward. The lease, or an agreement between the parties, allows the aircraft to be accepted with the item open, and both parties record the terms: who does the work, by when, and any settlement.
• Withdrawn. A duplicate, or raised in error, with the reason.

If a closed item comes back, for example when the test flight shows the same defect, reopen it rather than raising a new one. The history then stays in one place.

Before technical acceptance: a last pass through the list

• Every item is Closed, or carried forward with its terms recorded on the item.
• Nothing sits at Done waiting for a decision.
• Every disputed item has a recorded outcome.
• Records items reconcile with the records being handed over: the status reports match their evidence.
• Evidence files are on the items, not in someone's inbox.
• The final list is exported with the date, and both parties hold that version, so the acceptance documents can refer to it.

Keeping the open items list in Avioverse

Open Trackers, choose New tracker and pick Delivery / redelivery open items (references OIL-001 onwards). Each row has Ref, Title, Status, Owner and Due, plus ATA chapter, Location and Category (Records, Physical, Cabin, Engines, Other). Owner and due date are optional; fill them anyway, because an item with no owner gets no due notifications. The path is fixed: Open → In progress → Done → Closed.

A guest can move an item from Open to In progress to Done. Only a manager closes or reopens it. So the receiving side should manage the tracker. On a return, ExampleLessor's representative creates it and uses Invite guest for ExampleAir's records lead and ExampleMRO's project lead. If the operator keeps the list instead, the representative is the guest, and nothing is closed until their agreement is on the item.

Guests sign in with the invited email address; the one-time link is valid for 14 days. With Only rows I grant them, the default, they see only the rows you grant. There they comment, record actions, attach files and make those moves. They cannot add or edit items.

Each item's Timeline is add-only: Comment and Action entries, plus the system's own entries for status, owner, field and visibility changes. Nothing in it is edited or deleted. Files up to 20 MB each attach to a comment or an action and collect in the Attachments tab. Create task puts a linked task in your Tasks. The owner gets Due soon and Overdue notifications while an item is Open or In progress. Export gives Tracker (PDF) and Export CSV for the daily issue.

The limits, once. Columns and statuses are fixed, so the other party's position goes in the timeline. There is no spreadsheet import; on a paid plan, Metis can read a PDF list into a draft and asks you to confirm before it creates the items. There is no screen to remove a guest once they have joined, so invite named people. The lease, the technical acceptance certificate and any maintenance release stay outside the tracker, and it does not check the aircraft against the return conditions.