- Aerospace
- Air finance
- Airline
- Ascend Consultancy
- Expert view
- Industry trends
A deep dive into ACMI utilization by airlines
Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance (ACMI) leasing has become an increasingly essential strategy for airlines to address operational challenges.
Read all of the latest updates from Ascend Consultancy experts who deliver powerful analysis, commentaries and projections to airlines, aircraft build and maintenance companies, financial institutions, insurers and non-banking financiers.
Ascend Consultancy has been providing values insights for six decades.
Meet the Ascend Consultancy team.
Team Perspective
Toshimitsu Sogabe
Aviation Consultant
Cirium Ascend Consultancy
Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance (ACMI) leasing has become an increasingly essential strategy for airlines to address operational challenges. Factors such as delayed new aircraft deliveries, supply chain constraints leading to parts shortages, prolonged maintenance turnaround times, and overall operational limitations continue to drive demand for ACMI solutions. Under such circumstances, we have assessed which airlines have been heavily utilizing the fleet from specialist ACMI providers.
Below are the top ten airlines with the largest passenger fleet sourced from ACMI providers in July 2024 (Northern Hemisphere Summer). Note this does not include “traditional” airlines categorized as non-ACMI providers under Cirium Fleets Analyzer (e.g. Finnair wet-leasing their A330s to Qantas, or AirBaltic wet-leasing their A220s to Lufthansa Group).
| Airlines | Jul-2024 | Fleet from ACMI | |
| 1 | Lufthansa Group | 35 | E190 E1/E2, CRJ1000, A320 |
| 2 | THY (Ajet) | 25 | A320, A321, 737 Max 8 |
| 3 | TUI Group | 24 | A320, 737-800, 737 Max 8 |
| 4 | VivaAerobus | 21 | A320 |
| 5 | SAS | 20 | CRJ900 |
| 6 | Indigo | 16 | A320 |
| 7 | Air France-KLM Group | 13 | E190 E1, A319, A320, A330-200 |
| 8 | Condor | 9 | A320, A321 |
| 8 | Wizz | 9 | A320, 737-800 |
| 10 | Jet2 | 8 | A320, A321 |
| Others | 118 | ||
| TOTAL | 298 | ||
Source: Cirium Fleets Analyzer
The above list reflects a diverse mix of airlines, including full-service carriers, low-cost carriers (LCCs), regional airlines and freighter operators.
In contrast, when examining the top ten airlines in January 2025 (Northern Hemisphere Winter), we observe shifts in rankings, with some airlines increasing or decreasing their fleet from specialist ACMI providers, while others have been completely removed from the list.
| Airlines | Jan-2025 | vs Jul-2024 | |
| 1 | VivaAerobus | 24 | 3 |
| 2 | Indigo | 18 | 2 |
| 3 | Lufthansa Group | 23 | -12 |
| 4 | SAS | 15 | -5 |
| 5 | THY (Ajet) | 13 | -12 |
| 6 | Condor | 7 | -2 |
| 7 | Air Peace | 6 | 6 |
| 7 | Air France-KLM Group | 6 | -7 |
| 9 | Saudia | 4 | -1 |
| 9 | Air Arabia | 4 | 1 |
| 9 | El Al | 4 | 1 |
| 9 | Azerbaijan Airlines | 4 | 1 |
| 9 | PSA Airlines | 4 | 1 |
| Others | 76 | -69 | |
| – | TUI Group | 2 | -22 |
| – | Jet2 | 0 | -8 |
| – | SunExpress | 0 | -7 |
| TOTAL | 204 | -94 | |
Source: Cirium Fleets Analyzer
It is notable that while flag carriers such as Lufthansa Group, THY (through it’s subsidiary Ajet), Air France-KLM Group and SAS sees some reductions but continue to utilize ACMI provider’s fleet in January 2025, leisure and tour operators have significantly scaled down or completely phased out these fleets. The most striking example is TUI, which returned most of its 22 aircraft that were in operation in July 2024 by January 2025 to ACMI providers. Similarly, Jet2 and SunExpress, both of which had incorporated ACMI provider’s fleet in July 2024 (with eight and seven aircraft respectively), fully discontinued their ACMI provider’s fleet utilization by January 2025. This is understandable given the larger fluctuation in peak and off-peak demand for leisure and tour operators. In contrast, Indigo has maintained (or in fact slightly increased) their fleet from ACMI providers, primarily to compensate for ongoing groundings of its owned and leased aircraft due to Pratt and Whitney’s GTF engine issues.
| Operator Region | Jul-2024 | Jan-2025 | Jan-2025 vs Jul-2024 |
| Europe | 199 | 87 | 44% |
| Africa | 31 | 23 | 74% |
| Asia Pacific | 26 | 32 | 123% |
| Latin America | 24 | 35 | 146% |
| Middle East | 13 | 20 | 154% |
| North America | 5 | 7 | 140% |
| TOTAL | 298 | 204 | 68% |
Source: Cirium Fleets Analyzer
The above chart highlights that Europe remains the largest market for ACMI provider’s fleet utilization. It is interesting to see Africa ranks as the second-largest market, despite its relatively smaller aviation sector compared to other continents. A significant portion of ACMI demand in the Asia Pacific and Latin American markets is driven by Indigo and VivaAerobus; excluding the two airlines would result in a substantial reduction in ACMI provider’s fleet usage in these regions (Turkey is categorized as part of “Europe” under Cirium Fleets Analyzer). Furthermore, European airlines have significantly reduced their ACMI provider’s fleet utilization in January 2025, whereas other regions have shown an overall increase, with the exception of Africa, which experienced a slight reduction. This may be attributed to a combination of factors, including seasonal fluctuations in air traffic (including countries in the Southern Hemisphere), and non-seasonal challenges that necessitate ACMI use, as observed in IndiGo’s case).
As mentioned above it is important to note that this assessment does not completely capture the impact of the full wet-lease demand in the market as we have not assessed wet-lease provided by “traditional” airlines. However even within this scope, we can observe the distinct variations in airline requirements and/or operational strategies regarding ACMI utilization.
You may also like …
SHOW MORE ARTICLES
Cirium Launches Asset Watch: Revolutionizing Aviation Asset Management Across Industries
March 2025
London, March 4, 2025: Cirium, the most trusted source of aviation analytics, has unveiled a new innovative tool, Asset Watch,…
Consolidation cold spell
February 2025
Read all of the latest updates from Ascend Consultancy experts who deliver powerful analysis, commentaries and projections to airlines, aircraft build and…
Do airline dreams come true? Part 3
January 2025
Read all of the latest updates from Ascend Consultancy experts who deliver powerful analysis, commentaries and projections to airlines, aircraft build and…
Shaking out the Airbus and Boeing 2024 delivery numbers
January 2025
Read all of the latest updates from Ascend Consultancy experts who deliver powerful analysis, commentaries and projections to airlines, aircraft build and…
