In the current 2024 summer flight schedule period, the regional airline KLM Cityhopper is also using wet lease aircraft operated by Eastern Airways and German Airways. The background is that there are too few pilots available.

A KLM spokesman admitted to Aviation Week that the subsidiary KLM Cityhopper is currently experiencing a shortage of pilots. The regional carrier operates the Embraer fleet, which is used on many routes on behalf of the mainline. Since there is a shortage of pilots, the company cannot utilize its own fleet to the extent that would be necessary to maintain flight operations without externally rented aircraft.

It has therefore been decided that the ACMI cooperation with German Airways, which has existed for a long time, will be continued. Eastern Airways also flies Cityhopper on behalf of KLM. The German company currently flies six E190s for the Dutch regional airline. Eastern operates one E170 and one E190 for the KLM subsidiary. Cityhopper has currently rented a total of eight wet lease aircraft.

In simple terms, wetlease means that an airline (in this case KLM Cityhopper) commissions another airline to operate flights. The contractor (for example German Airways) provides both the aircraft and the personnel, but - in contrast to charter - the flight is flown under the client's code. Normally, fuel is not included in the rates, as this is usually billed directly between the oil company and the client, so that the wetlease partner is essentially “provided” with it and earns money from the pure service. But there are also other constellations.

KLM Cityhopper currently has 18 Embraer E195-E2, 30 E190 and 17 E175 in-house. Due to, among other things, the lack of personnel and technical maintenance work, a total of eight machines are not in use. The regional airline will gradually add eight more Embraer E195-E2s.