A wet lease: is a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (lessor) provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline (lessee), which pays by hours operated. The lessee provides fuel, covers airport fees, and any other duties, taxes, etc. The flight uses the flight number of the lessee. A wet lease generally lasts one month to two years; anything less would be considered an ad-hoc charter. A wet lease is typically utilized during peak traffic seasons or annual heavy maintenance checks, or to initiate new routes. A wet leased aircraft may be used to fly services into countries where the lessee is banned from operating.
They can also be considered as a form of charter whereby the lessor provides minimum operating services, including ACMI, and the lessee provides the balance of services along with flight numbers. In all other forms of charter, the lessor provides the flight numbers. Variations of a wet lease include a code share arrangement and a block seat agreement.
Wet leases are occasionally used for political reasons; for instance, Egypt Air, 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 Egypt Air to get around the political issue.
In the United Kingdom, a wet lease is when an aircraft is operated under the AOC of the lessor.
When an air carrier provides less than an entire aircraft crew, the wet lease occasionally is also sometimes referred to as a damp lease, especially in the UK. A wet lease without crew is occasionally referred to as a "moist lease".
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