Insurance Post Podcast: Aviation risk in a volatile world - insights from David Langran
How can aviation insurers provide certainty when the risks facing their clients are changing so quickly?
HIVE Underwriters Head of Crisis Management David Langran joined the Insurance Post Podcast to discuss that question alongside Trehane Oliver of McLarens Aviation, Ed Louth of Liberty Specialty Markets and Tom Hughes of the International Underwriting Association.
Hosted by Scott McGee, the episode explores geopolitical instability, evolving aircraft technology, claims costs and the future of aviation insurance. David’s contributions highlight three connected priorities: understanding persistent volatility, identifying useful data and maintaining a sustainable insurance market.
1. Geopolitical volatility is a long-term consideration
David notes: “I think we take the view that the volatility we've seen over the last few years is probably here to stay. We think the dynamics are structural rather than incidental.”
For David, the uncertainty facing aviation war underwriters reflects fundamental changes in the geopolitical environment.
He describes how the focus has shifted from concerns about individual acts of terrorism towards state-on-state conflict, economic confrontation and complex claims disputes. Established policy wordings are being asked to respond to circumstances that can be considerably different from those insurers anticipated a decade ago.
Understanding those changes is essential to assessing exposures and ensuring that coverage and pricing remain appropriate.
2. Useful data matters more than volume
“You know, there's reams and reams of data available. But a lot of it is not necessarily relevant to what we're doing. So you have to be quite targeted,” David says.
As aviation technology develops, insurers need to identify the information that will help them understand new risks and design suitable products.
David points to manufacturers’ simulation and testing data as potential sources of insight where established loss histories may be limited. Accessing that information—and knowing which elements are relevant - requires clear questions and close engagement with clients.
He also explains how HIVE’s Sentinel platform tracks aircraft and monitors geopolitical risk, helping the team better understand client exposures and strengthen conversations about risk.
3. Clients need a dependable insurance market
“Having a volatile risk landscape is one thing, but we prefer to not have a volatile market going along with it. We want to keep capital interested in our market to be able to offer the clients the certainty they need.”
David’s message is that sustainable insurance depends on both appropriate coverage and pricing that reflects the risks being assumed.
For emerging technologies, he emphasises underwriting fundamentals: managing the size of exposures taken on and maintaining discipline in policy wording. These controls help insurers support innovation while managing the potential consequences when experience is limited.
For HIVE, understanding changing exposures and maintaining underwriting discipline are closely connected to providing clients with dependable support.
Listen to the full Insurance Post Podcast: Is aviation insurance entering a new era of risk?
