Reasons For Wet Leasing An Aircraft Versus Purchase Or Dry Lease

By Author: Alan Carter
Total Articles: 9
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In the aviation industry it is fairly common to hear about Aircraft Wet Leasing; Aircraft wet lease is a common term also known as ACMI lease; which includes the Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance. It is a bit like renting a car with a driver instead of buying a car. An Aircraft Wet Lease should be considered as a turnkey solution and is mostly used for short term time periods. In this article we will review why airlines would go for a wet lease rather than purchasing or dry leasing an aircraft.
1. Seasonal demand
One of the most common reasons for Wet Leasing an aircraft is related to the seasonal demand. Many charter operators and sometimes the national airlines as well will have to cope with a degree of seasonality; for example, during the summer season these operators will have a lot more passengers to transport and in such cases they will generally wet lease an aircraft for a period of 6 months to cover the increase in demand.

2. New route trials
Start up operators and existing operators are not always sure about the commercial viability of certain routes they want to fly, for this reason ...
... it is often prudent to first enter into an aircraft wet lease contract and take the aircraft on wet lease basis rather than committing to a purchase or a dry lease. At the end of the wet lease period, the operator can then decide based on the results whether the new route is a success.

3. Out of gauge – long term outsourcing
Another very good reason for wet leasing rather than purchasing would be when an airline is required to operate a route or a project that is apart from their main business activity; for example a passenger airline that wants to cover some small cargo routes but don’t want to invest in buying new aircraft for this and taking on board new pilots, may opt to outsource the aircraft and crew in form of an Aircraft Wet Lease contract. Although Wet Leasing is not always the most cost efficient solution, in this scenario, it may be that wet leasing turns out to be cheaper than hiring and getting everything into place on purchase or dry lease basis.

4. AOG
Finally, a typical reason for taking an aircraft on wet lease would be during AOG situations (Aircraft on Ground). In these scenarios airliners will sub-contract an aircraft from another airline and since they will already have all traffic rights in place for the route they want to operate, it makes more sense to just Wet Lease the aircraft.

If you would like to know more about Wet Leasing of Aircraft, feel free to contact a company such as Air Charter International who is a specialist in Aircraft Leasing; visit Air Charter International’s Wet Leasing page to find out more about the aircraft they can offer.