The European Commission (EC) is planning to revise legislation enforced in 2008 that caps the wet-lease of non-bloc-owned aircraft to a maximum period of seven months, renewable only once.
The measure - Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 - resulted in the United States imposing similar limits on EU-owned aircraft attempting to operate on wet-lease contracts in the US. According to Reuters, this negatively affected European carriers seeking to serve the US using wet-leased aircraft as they would not know if the wet-leased crews and planes would have permission to fly.
The EC has now sought a mandate from European Union (EU) member states to negotiate an unrestricted wet-leasing agreement with the United States - the first of its kind for the bloc. While most member states have supported the initiative, the report says Germany has opposed it.
