The only sure way to own airliners without losing money is not to fly them. But if you must fly them, be a wet lessor. That is the not entirely tongue-in-cheek view of GetJet Aviation founder and chairman Alex Celiadin, who over 11 years has quietly built a highly profitable ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) and charter business for which he is targeting €1 billion ($1.17 billion) revenues by 2030.
That goal – which represents an almost sixfold increase on the group’s 2024 tally of €184 million – is certainly ambitious. However, Celiadin – whose Lithuanian-based group numbers Wizz Air, Finnair, Icelandair and Vueling among its more than 50 clients – insists he has a clear pathway to achieve it.
Firstly, he believes he can greatly boost GetJet’s charter business – currently only around 15% of revenues – to become “the major tour operator in the Baltics in the coming years”. Coupled with that is an aggressive fleet expansion plan, which will double the current fleet of 16 Airbus and Boeing single-aisle jets within five years, although GetJet will acquire only used aircraft.
Finally, GetJet is expanding its aircraft trading and third-party maintenance, repair and overhaul activities, with a hangar in Vilnius due to open in 2028 to join a recently established facility in Šiauliai. Meanwhile, there will be a focus on dry leasing during winter and parting out older aircraft. “Our target is to have the same amount of revenue from asset management activities as ACMI,” he says.
He believes that delays in new aircraft deliveries, ongoing issues with Pratt & Whitney GTF and CFM International Leap engines, and uncertainty around making large capital investments in the current economic climate is boosting ACMI generally. “There are so many factors that make our service in demand,” he says.
Similarly, being an ACMI operator reduces risk, says Celiadin – who launched GetJet in 2014, aged 27, after briefly being involved in the running of another another Lithuanian carrier, Grand Cru Airlines. “There are no passenger liabilities, no fuel costs. It’s as close as possible to being in the leasing business.”
There are challenges, of course. “The seasonality is enormous,” he says. “You have to first work out how much you are going to lose in winter and once you plan around that you know what you must do.” He says GetJet “moves planes around” its three air operator certificates (AOCs), in Lithuania, Latvia and Malta, and tries to fly in the off-season “just enough to keep crews current and the system running”.
The objective is to “make winter as quick as possible”, maintains Celiadin – who began his airline career as a sales executive at Lithuania’s first private airline, Aurela Airlines, while studying for an MBA – and avoid moving aircraft to and re-registering them in southern hemisphere jurisdictions, something he says is complicated and expensive.
GetJet operates 10 Airbus A320ceos, one A321ceo and five Boeing 737-800s. He describes the previous generation narrowbodies as “reliable flyers” and “workhorses that will go on for some time”. Although the average age of the fleet is 17 years, he hopes to bring it down to a “sweet spot” of 10 in the next few years.
The fleet is smaller than just before the pandemic, when GetJet had around 25 aircraft, including four Airbus A330s – a -900, a -200 and two -300s – and a contract to operate Warsaw-Toronto flights on behalf of LOT Polish Airlines. Its last widebody, the A330-200, was transferred to Maldives carrier Maldivian in January this year.
Celiadin does not rule out moving back into the twin-aisle market and is looking at acquiring Boeing 777s, which he expects will become available at attractive prices once the 777X enters service and the Airbus A350 fleet grows. “I hope opportunities come in widebodies and we are working hard to secure them, but it’s not our core business and we don’t depend on it,” he says.
GetJet’s MRO push has involved opening its Šiauliai MRO facility in northern Lithuania in 2024 and expanding services to third-party customers this year. It is also investing €10 million on the development at Vilnius, which it says will be the first new hangar at the capital’s airport for 20 years. Its MRO, component trading and asset management activities operate under the Airhub Aviation banner.
Celiadin says having in-house maintenance capability – its four-bay Šiauliai operation carries out cabin refurbishments as well as airframe and landing gear C-checks – is essential at a time of continuing capacity shortages. “We need aircraft availability, otherwise we would be an ACMI that needs an ACMI,” he says. “And we need just enough third-party work to keep the facility busy year-round.”
Accounts for parent group GetJet Aviation Holdings – which includes the ACMI and charter airlines as well as the MRO and asset management activities – show it delivered €25.4 million net profit on €184.3 million revenue in 2024, which GetJet says represents roughly three times the global airline industry’s average net margin.
GetJet carried 2.1 million passengers in 2024, a 22% increase on the previous year. This included just over 270,000 charter passengers, a market Celiadin is convinced GetJet can continue to grow after it took over several routes of failed Lithuanian leisure airline Small Planet in 2018. He says the door is open for GetJet to become the dominant tour operator in a region with a population of around six million.
Celiadin, who lives in Dubai, has moved on from day-to-day management of GetJet, but says he remains committed to expanding aviation in his native country, which already punches above its weight in the industry, and especially ACMI. Although now based in Dublin, Lithuania is where Avia Solutions Group – which claims to be the world’s largest ACMI provider – was established and from where it is still owned.