Chennai, Sep 6 - A flurry of plane crashes across the world this year will find its echo in the domestic aviation insurance premium rates in the form of a 25-40 percent hike.

The year 2009 will go down as a bad year for airlines with three major accidents - Air France, Yemenia and Caspian Airlines - killing around 550 people. There were several other minor incidents too.

'The Air France and Yemenia losses in June this year are likely to set the agenda for the airline insurance market for the rest of the year and potentially well into 2010. Estimates for Air France and Yemen Air loss have been put in the range of $700-800 million and $250-300 million respectively,' Bhargav Dasgupta, managing director and CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, told IANS.

According to him, the losses incurred by the global aviation insurance market this year excluding minor losses are estimated at $1.32 billion till June 2009, as against a premium income of $416 million.

'Nearly half of the airline placements so far globally have seen their hull and liability premium costs rise by more than 25 percent compared to the previous year. This pattern is likely to continue for the rest of the year. As airlines insurance in India follows global trends, we expect a price rise for Indian carriers as well,' he added.

According to Dasgupta, the aviation premium rate is primarily driven by the global trends owing to the large values for the aircraft and liability covers for which international reinsurance capacity is required.

The global aviation premium and claims for 2007-08 are estimated at $1.6 billion and $1.4 billion respectively. Considering the acquisition and operating costs, the insurers have been incurring losses resulting in hardening of premium rates from the last quarter of 2008, he added.

'Typically the premium rate would vary from 0.