In the 2022/23 winter timetable, only four aircraft will still fly for Eurowings under wet lease. The company confirmed that the jets rented, including crews, will be stationed in Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf.
In the 2023 summer timetable, up to eleven Airbus A320s from Avion Express Malta, five Airbus A220-300s from Air Baltic and Boeing 737-800s from Tuifly are in use on behalf of Eurowings. In winter, the number of wet lease partners will be much more manageable, because only Air Baltic and Tuifly are to fly for Eurowings, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Two Airbus A220-300s from the Latvian airline will be in service from Düsseldorf for the Lufthansa subsidiary. This reduces the number of aircraft leased by this operator by three. The numerous Airbus A320s from Aviation Express Malta are no longer needed in the 2022/23 winter flight schedule. Two Tuifly Boeing 737-800s will continue to fly for Eurowings from Cologne/Bonn.
"As expected, the volume of wet leases decreases sharply in the winter program - in line with our motto of employing partner companies mainly for the busy summer peaks. In accordance with the seasonal ups and downs, we are reducing our wet lease capacities in the 2022/23 winter flight schedule to just four aircraft - two each from Tuifly (for Cologne/Bonn) and Air Baltic (for Düsseldorf). This means that Eurowings will fly almost exclusively with its own aircraft and staff next winter," a Eurowings spokeswoman told Aviation.Direct.
When asked whether wet lease services will be needed again on a larger scale in the 2023 summer flight schedule, the media officer said: “Summer 2023 is still very difficult to forecast. Since we are regularly very flexible, Eurowings will decide on the volume of wet leases at a later date".