US approves first foreign wet lease
30 / 09 / 2010
THE US Department of Transportation has formally approved a long-term wet lease from a non-US airline to a US airline for the first time. The first wet-lease involved a Boeing 767-300F of euroAtlantic Airways, a European airline based in Portugal.
Until recently, US regulations prohibited a non-US airline from wet-leasing an aircraft to a US air carrier, a policy which over the years has been the subject of strong criticism by other countries and their airlines.
In 2008 the department finally established a new policy to allow such wet leasing, but one that also requires rigorous approval requirements.
