Wet lease is an aviation term referring to a leasing arrangement between a lessor company that provides aircraft, complete crew (even multiple crews and also engineers with their salaries and allowances), maintenance and insurance (ACMI) and a lessee company that pays the lessor by hours operated by the airplane. The lessee provides fuel and covers airport taxes and any other tax that might occur and also the flight will use the flight number of the lessee. Although these days fuel is provided by the lessee in the past this was provided by the lessor, this fact is at the origin of the name wet lease. When the lessor provides less than an entire aircraft crew, the wet lease operation is also called a damp lease, (mostly in the UK). A wet lease without crew is known as a "moist lease".
Flight numbers in a wet lease operation are provided by the lessee, on regular charters these is provided by the lessor. Other variations of a wet lease can include a code share service and block seat agreement.
The lessor charges the lessee for the bloc hour (choc off to choc on) and usually sets a minimum guaranteed block hours limit per month. So in this situation the lesse must pay the minimum guaranteed block hours even if the aircraft does not fly.
The duration of a wet lease arrangement is usually from one month to two years. Shorter then one month arrangements are considered ad-hoc charters.
The motivation behind wet lease is various, typically tries to fill the following needs:
- aircraft shortage during seasonal peak traffic or heavy maintenance checks on the fleet of the lessee
- fly into countries where the lessee is banned from operating
Wet leases can occasionally be used to circumvent rules and politics. For example, EgyptAir, an Egyptian government enterprise, cannot fly to Israel under its own name, as a matter of Egyptian government policy. Therefore, Egyptian flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv are operated by Air Sinai, which wet-leases from EgyptAir to get around the political issue.
In the United Kingdom, a wet lease is when an aircraft is operated under the Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) of the lessor.
hours.
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Flight numbers in a wet lease operation are provided by the lessee, on regular charters these is provided by the lessor. Other variations of a wet lease can include a code share service and block seat agreement.
The lessor charges the lessee for the bloc hour (choc off to choc on) and usually sets a minimum guaranteed block hours limit per month. So in this situation the lesse must pay the minimum guaranteed block hours even if the aircraft does not fly.
The duration of a wet lease arrangement is usually from one month to two years. Shorter then one month arrangements are considered ad-hoc charters.
The motivation behind wet lease is various, typically tries to fill the following needs:
- aircraft shortage during seasonal peak traffic or heavy maintenance checks on the fleet of the lessee
- fly into countries where the lessee is banned from operating
Wet leases can occasionally be used to circumvent rules and politics. For example, EgyptAir, an Egyptian government enterprise, cannot fly to Israel under its own name, as a matter of Egyptian government policy. Therefore, Egyptian flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv are operated by Air Sinai, which wet-leases from EgyptAir to get around the political issue.
In the United Kingdom, a wet lease is when an aircraft is operated under the Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) of the lessor.
hours.
Aviation pages
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