Capacity you need for four months, not twelve.
A summer programme or a ski season, priced as a block, without carrying the aircraft through the months you cannot fill. That is the whole commercial case for a wet lease, and it is why this market is as seasonal as it is.
The seasonality is measurable. Cirium tracked the ACMI fleet at 298 aircraft in summer 2024, falling to 204 by the January, with Europe down to 44 per cent of July levels. Commit early or the aircraft is flying somewhere else.
