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Aviation glossary

Dry lease

Also: dry leasing, operating lease, aircraft-only lease

Airlines and business

Lease of an aircraft alone, without crew or maintenance; the lessee airline flies it with its own staff and under its own operating certificate.

What it is

This is the usual way for airlines to add aircraft without buying them. The lessee places the aircraft on its air operator certificate, supplies pilots and cabin crew, handles maintenance and paints it in its livery; for practical purposes, it is part of the airline's fleet for as long as the contract runs.

Most dry leases are operating leases lasting several years, after which the aircraft goes back to the lessor in an agreed maintenance condition. A finance lease, by contrast, works more like buying in instalments, and the airline usually ends up owning the aircraft. While the lease runs, the lessor remains the owner, and the aircraft is generally registered in the operating airline's country.

On Vuelopedia

In an aircraft record, Vuelopedia shows the current operator and, where known, the owner or lessor.

Related terms

Wet leaseArrangement in which one airline hires another's aircraft together with its crew, maintenance and insurance, while the lessor operates it under its own certificate. LessorCompany that owns aircraft and rents them out to airlines for years at a time in return for regular payments, without operating them itself. Sale and leasebackDeal in which an airline sells an aircraft to a lessor and immediately leases it back, so that it can keep flying the aircraft without interruption. Operator and ownerDistinction between the operator, the airline that flies an aircraft and is responsible for its operation, and the legal owner, often a lessor or a bank. RegistrationCombination of letters and numbers that identifies an aircraft with the state in which it is registered and must be painted on its exterior.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Dry lease. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease

MLA

“Dry lease.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Dry lease.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Dry lease. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_dry_lease,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Dry lease}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/dry-lease |title=Dry lease |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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