Eleven airlines plan to utilise wet-lease aircraft on services to and from the former Yugoslavia during the upcoming 2026 summer season. This excludes instances where carriers operate flights through their own regional subsidiaries. A wet lease is an arrangement whereby the lessor provides the aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) to another airline. Reliance on ACMI providers has grown in recent years, accelerated by the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, including supply chain bottlenecks, crew shortages and continued delays in new aircraft deliveries.
Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines and Swiss will all utilise airBaltic equipment and crews on select flights to the region. Brussels Airlines has scheduled the Latvian carrier on services to Ljubljana, Austrian Airlines on flights to Pristina and Skopje, while Swiss will deploy airBaltic aircraft to Belgrade, Dubrovnik and Ljubljana. Austrian Airlines still has Braathens ATR72 turboprops scheduled to operate a number of services to Belgrade and Zagreb over the summer, however, the carrier has terminated its wet-lease partnership with Braathens and these aircraft are expected to be replaced.
Finnair will rely on Danish carrier Jettime to operate some of its flights to Ljubljana this summer. Notably, Jettime assumed the “JP” designator code in 2023, previously used by Adria Airways. SAS Scandinavian Airlines will also make use of Jettime equipment on services from Copenhagen to Split and Dubrovnik, while CityJet aircraft will operate certain flights from Copenhagen to Pula and Zadar.
Eurowings will deploy a significant amount of wet-leased capacity on its flights to the former Yugoslavia this summer. The low cost carrier will utilise aircraft from GetJet Airlines on services from Hamburg to Dubrovnik, Pristina, Rijeka, Split and Zadar. Avion Express Malta equipment will operate select flights from Dusseldorf to Pristina, Pula, Split and Rijeka, from Stuttgart to Pristina, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Split, Zadar and Zagreb, as well as from Frankfurt and Munich to Pristina. Smartwings aircraft will be used on select services from Cologne to Belgrade, Pristina, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Split, Zadar and Zagreb.
Israeli carrier Arkia will deploy aircraft from Cambodia Airways, Electra Airways and FlyLili on select flights to Belgrade this summer. Meanwhile, Sun d’Or will utilise KlasJet aircraft on services to both Belgrade and Tivat. Leisure carrier TUI fly Netherlands will use a Bulgaria Air Airbus A320 aircraft on flights between Amsterdam and Ohrid.
Among local carriers, Air Serbia will continue to rely on two wet-lease partners this summer. Bulgaria Air will maintain operations with four Embraer E190s, while airBaltic will provide four Airbus A220-300s, with aircraft deployed across various routes. On the other hand, Trade Air is expected to continue utilising a wet-lease partner for its domestic Croatian operations during the upcoming summer season, depending on the fate of its Public Service Obligation contract.
