Luxair, German Airways Enter into Wet Lease Partnership

Luxair, Luxembourg’s national carrier, and German Airways, the second-oldest German airline, have announced that they will be cooperating in the near future: Luxair will use one Embraer 190 from German Airways on its European route network.

Driven by the foreseen resumption of leisure travel and to meet the high demand expected, Luxair saw the need for additional capacity on longer routes for this summer 2022 season.

From mid-May 2022, the Embraer 190 will complete Luxair’s current fleet, composed of eight Boeing 737 and 11 De Havilland DHC-8-400 aircraft. With a capacity of 100 seats, the aircraft will allow the airline to be more flexible and to support the desire of its passengers to travel.

Luxair noted that booking trends having been at high levels for a few weeks already. The current easing of restrictions linked to COVID-19 in many countries is also allowing customers to plan ahead, with bookings for the summer increasing.

This Embraer 190 will allow Luxair to free capacity on the Boeing 737 and deploy further offers to largely demanded holidays destinations, in order to cope with the market’s demands.

German Airways operates a fleet of five modern and economical Embraer 190, which the company leases to other airlines under wet leases, including crews, and has announced that it will expand its fleet by four more Embraer 190 in the coming months.

Maren Wolters, Managing Director of German Airways, commented: "We are very pleased that Luxair is working with us. This will enable us to benefit from our hard-earned excellent reputation: we are known as a very reliable service provider with great know-how in the sector. With Luxair, we are adding another major European airline to our customer base, which already includes renowned European airlines". 

Gilles Feith, Luxair CEO, added: "In our urgent need to expand our capacity on longer routes, to support the relaunch of leisure travel, the German Airways’ Embraer 190 will relieve our Boeing 737 fleet in the summer to create capacity for the particularly popular vacation destinations, all while keeping our quality at the highest levels possible. The Embraer 190 will take over an increasing number of flights on business routes. The signs are pointing to growth and this partnership will help us bridge the waiting times until Luxair will be able to increase its own capacity. Luxair has already used various wet lease capacities in the past to be able to react faster to market changes".