The Cape Town Convention was held in 2001 and attended by 68 countries. Some 53 countries signed the treaty whilst at the conference. It has spread across the world – with adoption in the European Union the biggest the biggest disappointment.

It came into law when the first six countries signed it in 2006 and a further six countries signed it in 2007.

2006: Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, Ireland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Senegal, US
2007: Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Mongolia, South Africa

The treaty spread helped by an US Ex-Im discount for signatories. In 2009 the European Union signed – but it is up to individual countries to ratify it. So far only Ireland (which hosts the International Registry) and Malta have ratified the convention. The Netherlands has also ratified it for its overseas territories of Aruba (an important business jet registry), Curacao, Saint Maarten and The Caribbean Netherlands.

2008: Albania, Cape Verde, India, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, UAE
2009: Bangladesh, China, Cuba, European Union, Singapore, Tanzania
2010: Jordan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Rwanda
2011: Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey
2012: Belarus, Brazil, Fiji, Togo, Ukraine
2013: Bahrain, Canada, Congo, Madagascar, Myanmar
2014: Kuwait, Malawi