The International Union of Aerospace Insurers (IUAI) has formed a dedicated reinsurance and data group, bringing specialists from Munich Re, PartnerRe, SCOR, Germany’s insurance industry association GDV, and French mutual La Réunion Aérienne together to build aviation market statistics and share reinsurance expertise across its global membership.
The Reinsurance and Data Study Group (RDSG) becomes the IUAI’s seventh study group and its first focused on reinsurance as a discipline in its own right. The group’s founding mandate covers two distinct tasks: developing aviation-related industry statistics and educating IUAI members on how reinsurance functions within the aerospace market.
The five founding members are Ulrike Ohlmer, senior underwriter at Munich Re; Jens Jaeger, head of marine and aviation at GDV; Simon Murbach, senior underwriter for aviation and space at PartnerRe; Wolfgang Vogel, head of pricing for specialty lines and alternative solutions at SCOR; and Christophe Graber, chief executive of La Réunion Aérienne.
Its first formal meeting takes place in London in January 2027, with initial work expected at the IUAI’s annual conference in Atlanta in June 2027.
The founding membership signals intent. GDV, the Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft, is Germany’s primary insurance statistical body, and its presence alongside underwriters from three major reinsurers suggests the group is designed to produce usable market data rather than position papers. The aviation reinsurance market has operated without the kind of standardized, publicly available statistics that exist for property catastrophe or life reinsurance, and the consequences show up at renewal.
Ground handling and MRO attritional losses have become an increasing focus for aviation reinsurers, with WTW noting that severity is rising as inflation drives up repair costs and supply chain disruption extends maintenance cycles. Yet the sub-market lacks a common statistical baseline against which reinsurers can test their pricing assumptions. That gap becomes harder to work around as the complexity of aviation risk increases.
The IUAI’s own Cyber and Emerging Risks survey, published in June 2026 and drawing on responses from 106 aviation insurance and reinsurance professionals worldwide, found that US claims inflation ranked as the greatest operational challenge facing aviation reinsurers, ahead of market conditions and rate adequacy. Pricing claims inflation accurately without shared historical data is a structurally harder problem than pricing it with that data.
At the 2026 renewals, aviation reinsurers imposed smaller increases than many had anticipated despite the weight of 2025 claims, according to Howden Re. WTW, in a separate renewal analysis, noted that well-presented risk data directly affects whether reinsurers increase premiums in proportion to exposure growth or price more selectively. The RDSG’s work, if it produces usable statistics, would give both sides of the renewal negotiation a shared reference point that currently does not exist in standardized form.
The five founding members will grow the group to approximately eight to ten members over time. Ulla Norrhäll, president of the IUAI, said the group creates “a dedicated forum to combine knowledge, develop analysis and share insights that are useful to the market.” Philipp Langerweger, IUAI executive committee member supporting the group’s establishment, said the January 2027 meeting will translate the mandate into a focused work programme ahead of the Atlanta conference.
