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Aviation glossary

Wet lease

Also: ACMI, ACMI lease, damp lease

Airlines and business

Arrangement in which one airline hires another's aircraft together with its crew, maintenance and insurance, while the lessor operates it under its own certificate.

What it is

Wet leases are also known as ACMI leases, after Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance, the four things the lessor provides. The lessee pays by the block hour and covers fuel, airport and navigation charges and ticket sales. Flights carry the customer's flight numbers, although the aircraft often keeps the lessor's livery.

Airlines use wet leases to cover summer peaks, replace aircraft that are in maintenance or delivered late, or test a route without committing their own fleet. Because the lessor keeps operational control, the flights run under its air operator certificate, and regulators generally require equivalent safety standards.

In a damp lease, a variation on the theme, the lessor supplies only part of the crew, usually the pilots.

Related terms

Dry leaseLease of an aircraft alone, without crew or maintenance; the lessee airline flies it with its own staff and under its own operating 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. Block timeThe total time of a flight, measured from when the aircraft leaves the departure gate until it stops at the arrival gate, including taxiing and any holding. Charter airlineAirline selling non-scheduled flights hired by a customer, such as a tour operator, company or government, that books the whole aircraft for a trip. 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.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Wet lease. Retrieved October 18, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wet-lease

MLA

“Wet lease.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wet-lease. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

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

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Wet lease. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wet-lease (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_wet_lease,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Wet lease}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wet-lease},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wet-lease}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-18},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-18}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wet-lease |title=Wet lease |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-18 |language=en}}

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