Imagine booking Air Algerie from Algiers to Tunis, then Tunisair from Tunis to Marseille — and ending up on two all-white Airbus A320s owned by a Lithuanian-Maltese outfit and a Bulgarian charter operator. That's exactly what happened on one recent trip, and it highlights a quirk of North African flying that most travellers never see coming.
The Algiers–Tunis leg was operated by an 18-year-old Avion Express A320. Avion Express is technically headquartered in Lithuania but holds its air operator certificate in Malta — a common arrangement for European ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) lessors. Business class here was bare-bones: no power ports, no entertainment, and an ancient cabin — though at least the old-style seats predate the notoriously uncomfortable slimline designs. There was a silver lining: a surprisingly substantial hot meal for an hour-long hop, complete with a croissant, pastry, and a bread basket offered on top.
The next day's flight to Marseille was a similar story. Tunisair swapped aircraft, downgraded the passenger to economy, and put everyone on a 12-year-old Fly2Sky A320 run by a Bulgarian crew. The seat pitch was tight, the cabin full, and the single Tunisair attendant on board spent the entire 80-minute flight furiously selling duty-free — mostly cartons of cigarettes, apparently outselling the passenger count. A free meal was served nonetheless, though reviews were mixed at best.
The bigger issue isn't soggy tray food — it's transparency. When Lufthansa or SWISS put you on a wet-leased aircraft, they disclose the actual operator at booking. Air Algerie and Tunisair do no such thing: the booking simply shows a plane type, even one the airline doesn't actually fly itself. Anyone who wants to know who's really operating their flight has to figure it out the hard way. As wet leasing spreads — driven by aircraft shortages and seasonal demand — this lack of disclosure matters more than it used to, since a third-party crew and cabin rarely match the branding on your ticket.
Why should a traveller care? If you're flying within North Africa or connecting through Algiers or Tunis, your flight may well be operated by a European lessor with a different cabin, crew language mix, and service style than the airline's own product. On these routes, the national carriers' own crews typically speak Arabic and French but little English — while Avion Express crews spoke neither Arabic nor French. Checking the actual operator before booking (aviation geeks use sites that track fleet and registration data) can set expectations, especially if you're paying for business class on a plane that barely has any.
The upside, if you can call it that: on Air Algerie in particular, the leased product may honestly be no downgrade at all.
