Air Charter and Wet Lease Aircraft Leasing

The final chapter in the Airbus A310 story. TheJanuary 1994, initially using a single ex-Kuwait Airways
production line remains technically open but thePratt & Whitney powered A310-200 leased from
aircraft has been largely superseded, such is thethe manufacturer. A second ex-Kuwait Airways
march of progress. The final manoeuvres are sad andmodel followed in June 1994. A network was
on the wrong side of profitability.established linking Qatar's capital Doha with London
Cameroon Airlines wet lease an A310-300 from Airand several destinations in East Africa and the Indian
Plus Comet in November 1997. It had planned to usesubcontinent. As services grew, the airline needed
it throughout the winter season until the followinglarger aircraft and the A310s were returned in
March, but returned the aircraft on 5 December. OnFebruary and May 1995. Another local carrier Oman
the other side of the African continent, aAir has revamped its operations with two exSwissair
restructured Air Djibouti began operations with aA310-300s, which entered service in April 1999 on
leased A310-200 on 25 July 1998, serving its mainlonger sectors from Muscat to the Indian
links between Djibouti and Addis Ababa, Cairo,sub-continent. New services to southern Europe and
Dar-es-Salaam, Dubai, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi,East Africa are being planned.
Khartoum, Mogadishu, Mombasa, Muscat, Nairobi andLuxembourg-based newcomer Solid'air was due to
Rome. The aircraft was returned to Airbus Industriebegin operations in spring 1999 with two A310-300s,
Financial Services in February 1999.configured for 232 passengers in a two-class cabin of
Egyptian start-up Heliopolis Airlines operated an28 business and 204 economy seats. Both aircraft
A310-200 from Airbus Industrie Financial Services inare on lease from Lufthansa for a period of five
October 1997, but a fall-off in tourist traffic hit theyears for planned charter services from Luxembourg
airline hard and the Airbus was repossessed on 30to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and to the
June 1998. Tunis Air, already an A300 operator,Bahamas and Dominican Republic. Other Central
leased an A310-300 from Royal Jordanian betweenAmerican and Caribbean destinations will be added.
30 August and 30 September 1991.Airbus built a total of 261 of these aircraft over a 15
Qatar Airways, formed in direct competition with itsyear period.
own national airline Gulf Air, began operations on 20