South African Airways (SAA) says it has entered a damp lease agreement with SunExpress “that will allow SAA to operate a schedule utilising two SunExpress aircraft for a six-month period, commencing mid-October 2023.” The first of the 2 aircraft has been received according to the airline.
SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines is reputed to have one of the youngest fleets in Europe and was named Europe’s Best Leisure Airline in 2023 at the World Airline Awards and in 2022 was awarded World’s Best Leisure Airline in the same awards.
The damp lease agreement “covers the provision of aircraft, maintenance, and cockpit crew, whilst the aircraft will be served by SAA’s cabin crew to maintain SAA’s customer service standards. For maintenance of these aircraft, SunExpress has contracted SAA Technical (SAAT) to perform any required work, at its cost, on these aircraft whilst they are operated by SAA”, said SAA.
According to John Lamola, Chief Executive of SAA “This unique ACMI is a short-term tactical intervention in SAA’s fleet strategy, as we are working on the deployment of our long-term dry-leased four A320s. We are pleased with our relationship with SunExpress and are excited with its potential as we both manage the seasonality of passenger traffic in our respective geographic markets.”