Swiss (LX, Zurich) will wet-lease up to eight E190-E2s "or similar equipment" from fellow Swiss carrier Helvetic Airways (2L, Zurich) in Summer 2019, the airline said in a statement. It will thus double the capacity permanently wet-leased from Helvetic and replace the three Dash 8-400s it currently wet-leases from Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna).
Austrian Airlines, Swiss' sister Lufthansa Group unit, is planning to relocate the three Bombardier Aerospace turboprops back to Vienna and deploy them on its own network in the Summer 2019 season. Until the end of October 2018 it also wet-leased a fourth unit of the type to Swiss, but this aircraft has already been redeployed onto Austrian's own flights.
In terms of its cooperation with Helvetic, Swiss currently wet-leases four E190s under a long-term contract with additional ACMI deals happening on an ad-hoc or schedule season by schedule season basis.
"The long-term increase to eight wet-leased aircraft gives us security for planning the aircraft and crew," Helvetic CEO Tobias Pogorevc told ch-aviation.
The Swiss carrier currently operates exclusively on behalf of Swiss and Lufthansa. During the Summer, it also operates own scheduled flights to leisure destinations in cooperation with tour operators. Its fleet includes seven E190LRs and five Fokker 100s. In September, Helvetic firmed an order for twelve E190-E2s which will allow the carrier to fully replace the existing aircraft. The deliveries of the E2s are planned between September 2019 and June 2021.
Helvetic also has purchase options for twelve additional aircraft with the option to pick either E190 E2 or E195-E2 variants.
