Jet2, the leisure airline that flies from the United Kingdom to various vacation destinations, has signed a three-year wet lease and damp lease agreement with AirTanker for two Airbus A330-200s. The leased Jet2 A330s will fly from Manchester International Airport to various Spanish destinations, as occurred last summer.

New capacity for Jet2

Jet2 currently has, according to ch-aviation.com’s database, 89 active aircraft on hand, counting the first leased A330 plus 6 A321-200s, 7 737-300s, 8 757-200s, and 71 737-800s. There are also 12 Boeing 737-800s in maintenance, plus one stored and 1 A321-200NX (aka A321neo) in maintenance.

shutterstock_1598033053 - Tenerife, Spain – November 23, 2019: Jet2 A330 at Tenerife South airport.
Photo: Mike Fuchslocher via Shutterstock

According to seatmaps.com, the AirTanker A330-200s has 327 economy seats – perfect for flying from Manchester to Tenerife as pictured above – substantially more than their Airbus A320s at 220 seats and Boeing 757 at 235. The 737s come in at 148 for the 737-300s and 189 for the 737-800s.

Read more about the different variants of the Airbus A330

Where will these A330-200s go?

The A330-200s will, according to ch-aviation news, be flying out of Manchester International Airport to Tenerife Sur in the Spanish Canary Islands and Alicante, Spain. Come May 3, 2023, Palma de Mallorca – the Spanish Mediterranean island – and May 4, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands will also have A330-247s fly in.

Unique leasing agreements

The aircraft in question has some rather interesting leasing arrangements. But first, let's note that technically the A330s are A330-247 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) models with the capability for aerial refueling should AirTanker call back the aircraft for Royal Air Force duties.

The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force leases the A330-247 Voyager MRTTs to AirTanker to operate and maintain on various missions such as aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation, and the Falklands Islands’ airbridge connecting the South American Falkland Islands with the British Isles.

AirTanker has an agreement with the Royal Air Force to remove the aerial refueling equipment from five aircraft and lease those demilitarized airframes to civil operators.

Only then can AirTanker lease those five airplanes in different l forms to commercial operators such as the former Thomas Cook and Jet2. As AirTanker explains,

In May 2015, we secured our first ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance) commercial aircraft lease with Thomas Cook Airlines. Since then, we have expanded our Leasing business, and we now operate a number of Airbus A330-200 aircraft serving customer airlines and routes to Europe, North America, and beyond. We offer both wet lease (aircraft, flight crew, and cabin crew) and damp lease (aircraft and flight crew only) options to airlines who need extra capacity and a reliable, professional leasing partner.

In the case of Jet2, according to ch-aviation.com news, the aircraft will first be wet-leased through the 2023 summer. A wet lease is where AirTanker will provide not just the aircraft but also crew, maintenance, and even insurance for Jet2 in a lease, also called ACMI for short.

You can learn more about different types of aircraft leases.

After summer 2023, the two A330s will be damp leased. The damp leases are where the cabin crew comes from Jet2, while the pilots, maintenance, and insurance will come from AirTanker. This way, customers perceive they are flying on a Jet2 flight while all the non-customer-facing matters of the flight are addressed by the AirTanker professionals.

Ultimately, one AirTanker A330 will stay with Jet2 until November 2025, even in winter, while both A330s operate under a damp lease arrangement. This arrangement will continue to allow Jet2 to have a widebody jetliner in its fleet – partially thanks to the Royal Air Force and their British taxpayers.

Would you book a flight on a military cargo jet leased to a civilian operator? Please let us know in the comments.

Sources: AirTanker, ch-aviation.com news, Seatmaps.com