Smartwings (Czechia) (QS, Prague Václav Havel) will wet-lease a single A320-200 from Romania's Star East Airlines (4R, Bucharest Baneasa) during the summer 2022 season, marking the resumption of the latter's core activities after a break of over a year.
The Czech carrier confirmed to Romania's BoardingPass.ro that the wet-lease will begin on June 4 and continue through September 30, 2022. Smartwings has yet to file the schedule.
YR-SEA (msn 357), Star East's only aircraft, has been parked at Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen since September 1, 2021, following the completion of short-term charter operations on behalf of the American government during the evacuation of Afghanistan. However, except for this ad-hoc operation, the 29.8-year-old Airbus narrowbody has been grounded since January 2020, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
The Romanian ACMI/charter specialist remained active in 2020 and 2021 using its now-retired B737-400, YR-SEB (msn 25361). The aircraft has been parked at Cairo International since May 26, 2022, and is no longer on Star East Airlines' Air Operator's Certificate (AOC).
Smartwings' in-house fleet comprises two B737-700s, twenty-three B737-800s, two B737-900ERs, and seven B737-8s. Its subsidiaries Smartwings (Hungary), Smartwings (Poland), and Smartwings (Slovakia) operate one B737-800 each, the ch-aviation fleets module shows.
