When SAS started talking about how they would actually replace those Q400s they’re ditching, I noticed plenty of discussion about wet leases and dry leases. That made me realize it was a great time for the latest installment in the far too infrequent “What the F***” series.

The basic idea of a lease is pretty simple. An airline pays the owner of an aircraft for the ability to use that aircraft in the operation of their flights. Usually, the owner is another airline or an aircraft leasing company that specifically buys airplanes in order to lease them out to others. But there are a bunch of different types of leases, and that’s where it starts to get confusing. Below, you’ll see a handy chart showing what is included in the different types of leases.

So those are the basics. Why am I bothering to write about this? Well, as a passenger, you might find yourself on planes in some of these situations and it may seem kind of strange. Now you’ll know why.

Aircraft on a wet lease (also called an ACMI lease) tend to be the easiest ones to spot. The reason for that is because the crews are actually employees of the aircraft owner instead of the airline you bought your ticket on. There have been a handful of airlines recently in the US that have operated exclusively under a wet lease. Most of you probably haven’t heard of them, but SkyValue and (the last attempt at) Western were really just a brand name being operated by a different airline entirely.

Airlines in general tend to consider wet leases for more short term needs. That’s why SAS is looking to replace their Q400s in the next couple of months with planes operated by another carrier. These types of leases are certainly much more common in Europe than here in the US. Airlines will often lease extra planes during the busy summer season and then send them back in the winter over there. That’s when you see airplanes wearing funky paint schemes because it’s in a hybrid of the owner and the lessee.

Then we have dry and damp leases. For a customer, the difference between a damp lease (which is rare) and a dry lease is virtually indistinguishable, because on both aircraft the crews are from the airline from which you bought your ticket. Most of the time you’ll never know if your plane is leased or owned by the airline unless you bother looking it up. (You can look up US-based aircraft here.) Dry leases tend to be for longer periods of time than wet leases for obvious reasons. You don’t want to hire and invest in training for crews and maintenance personnel if you’re just going to have to let them go in a couple of months.

If you’d like to learn more, I found this page that can get you into even more detail.

They aren’t kidding when they say what goes up must come down. I was working on a post about the new Western Airlines when I found out that they’re already going out of business!

The airline started service on January 18 from its base in Bellingham (Washington) to San Diego, Ontario, and Mesa (near Phoenix). Since Bellingham is so close to Vancouver, they thought they’d be able to steal traffic from across the border. Unless they had figured out a magic way to cross the border quickly (they didn’t), I would have been surprised if that strategy worked.

Airline dorks were pretty excited to see the Western name return to the skies 20 years after the original was bought by Delta. The airline even used “Still the Only Way to Fly” as their slogan, a take on the old Western’s line.

The airline was “wet leasing” a plane from XTRA Airways. That means XTRA was responsible for flying the airplane around under Western’s name. Apparently Western forgot that they had to actually pay XTRA for that privelege, and that’s where the trouble started.

Clue #1 - If you go to the Western website, click on the reservations link. It has said “System Update in progress . . . please check back later!” for at least a day now.

Clue #2 - XTRA Airways sent out a blast email yesterday with the following:

XTRA aviation are pleased to advise of the following
Availability update:
We will have a B737-400 with 12J / 138Y (150Y) which will be available for
ad-hoc Charter from 12 Feb - 01 April 2007 inclusive Please forward all
outstanding requests and any new request which Xtra Aviation will be happy to
re-quote

Clue #3 - Well, this is more confirmation than a clue. The Bellingham Herald put out an article confirming that San Diego flights are canceled while the others likely will be as well. The company is out of money and is trying to find more. Good luck with that.

So, we say so long to Western. They almost made it a month.