Think EuroAtlantic and Hi Fly, for example.Īnd then there are airlines like Omni Air International, which makes its living largely via military transport contracts and charters. There are airlines that cater to this almost exclusively, having no scheduled flights of their own. Interiors and paint jobs reflect the owner of the plane, not the airline you’re ticketed on.
Sometimes the airplane comes with a crew from the owner as part of the deal (wet), and sometimes it doesn’t (dry). If you are not familiar, the basics are straightforward: Air Canada needs an airplane ASAP, and pays another airline to use their airplane as its own. While I find such things fascinating, none interests me more than the exciting world of dry/wet leases. Air Canada’s efforts have been particularly interesting, with the airline acquiring narrowbodies from defunct Icelandic carrier WOW, extending existing aircraft leases that would have otherwise ended, and transferring routes to other Star Alliance partners. As the Boeing 737 MAX grounding continues to drag on, airlines around the world have had to get creative with how to plug gaps in their fleets and route maps.
