Originally Posted by
spekesoftly
I believe Air Europe also had a brief aircraft sharing arrangement with Air Florida. I've a vague recollection of being mildly surprised at seeing a B737-200 in Air Florida colours at Gatwick in the early 1980s.
These arrangements have long been extensive with US and Canadian operators, and indeed continue to quite an extent, but started with the 737-200. basically, holiday flights from the north to Florida/Caribbean etc peak in the winter; in the summer they tend to go to their cabin in the woods closer to home. This is opposite seasonality to the European operators, of course, so various leasing deals have been arranged over time, back and forth, some quite extensive involving multiple aircraft. The Americans think the Brits going on holiday to Florida in the August heat are mad !
Even Court Line did it in the early 1970s with their One-Eleven 500s, sending a couple over to Caribbean operator LIAT, which they had a part ownership of, in the winter.