Starship leasing

Starship leasing was a concept under which operators could rent starships. The Pac-Men were especially adept at leasing starships, both as lessors and lessees, once they became warp-capable. Four tiers of starship leasing existed. However, starship leasing was more common for civilian uses. Operators leased starships for a variety of reasons, the most common being to operate starships without the financial burden of purchasing them (however, this did not apply to Federation operators that leased starships from other Federation operators) or to provide a temporary increase of capacity.

Wet leasing
Wet leasing was the most extensive form of leasing. It was the form of leasing where the lessor provided a starship, complete crew, maintenance and insurance to another operator (or lessee), which paid for hours operated or, on occasion, mileage operated. The lessee provided antimatter pods, covered starbase fees and any other duties. A wet lease generally lasted one month to two years; anything less would be considered an ad-hoc charter. A wet lease was typically utilized during peak traffic seasons or heavy maintenance checks, or to initiate new routes.

Damp and moist leasing only differed from wet leasing by the fraction of crewmen provided: damp leases did not include a full crew but still included some crewmen, whereas moist leases are leases where maintenance and insurance were provided by the lessor but the lessee had to provide the entire crew. The most famous example of damp leasing was the Pac-Man leasing of several Pac-Man dreadnoughts to Starfleet in 2294.

Dry leasing
A dry lease was a leasing arrangement where the lessor only provided the starship and where everything else was provided by the lessee. Dry lease was typically utilized by leasing companies and banks. A typical dry lease started from two years onwards and bore certain conditions with respect to depreciation, maintenance, insurance, etc, depending also on the astronomical location, political circumstances and other factors.