AirExplore

When a white or foreign-liveried Boeing 737-800 with a Slovak registration taxis past your spot, chances are good that you are looking at AirExplore. The airline from Bratislava is the kind of company passengers barely notice because it almost always flies on behalf of others – which is exactly what makes it interesting for spotters. Here you learn how AirExplore works, which aircraft it flies and how to identify its aircraft reliably.

AirExplore at a glance

AirExplore is a Slovak ACMI and charter airline based in Bratislava. It was started by aviation enthusiasts and former employees of Slovak airlines that had previously gone bankrupt. In 2010 the company began flight operations – with a single Boeing 737-400. Today AirExplore describes itself as the largest airline in Slovakia.

From the start the team relied not on its own ticket sales but on leasing: aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance go as a package to another airline, which uses it to cover peaks in its schedule or replace aircraft that are out of service.

In June 2023 the Avia Solutions Group took over the airline. The group bundles several ACMI and charter airlines in Europe and beyond. Since February 2026 AirExplore and the Lithuanian sister KlasJet have operated under joint management: both brands remain independent, with KlasJet focusing on VIP and private charter and AirExplore on the ACMI business. In March 2026 Justinas Bulka became CEO of AirExplore – he also leads KlasJet.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code ED: appears only when AirExplore operates flights under its own number, for example on charters.
• ICAO code AXE: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on many flight trackers – even when the flight is running for a customer.
• Callsign GALILEO: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio, unless it flies with the customer’s callsign.

With ACMI airlines, the flight number is a poor clue to the actual aircraft. A vacation flight with the number of a Polish airline can be operated by a Slovak 737. For your notes, therefore, registration and operating company count, not the number on the departure board.

How the ACMI business works

ACMI stands for Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance. So the customer airline gets not just an aircraft but a ready-made flight operation: AirExplore provides pilots and cabin crew, takes care of technical work and insurance, and the customer usually pays by block hours. The customer sells the tickets, sets the schedule and bears the marketing risk. You can find the background in detail in the article Wet lease explained.

Besides classic wet lease, AirExplore also offers damp lease, in which the customer provides part of the crew itself – usually the flight attendants. In addition there are passenger charters for tour operators, sports teams or companies and, since 2022, cargo flights. The difference between charter and scheduled service is explained in the post Charter flight and scheduled flight.

According to a CEO statement from fall 2025, about half of the fleet flies year-round contracts and the other half seasonal deployments in peak season. This very pattern makes AirExplore unpredictable for spotters: an aircraft that is out and about in Africa in winter can carry vacationers to the Mediterranean from a Polish airport in summer.

The fleet: only Boeing 737-800

AirExplore is a pure Boeing operator. The fleet has developed in three phases:

Phase	Type	Note for spotters
2010 to the mid-2010s	Boeing 737-400, one 737-300	Historic – the Classic generation is no longer in service at AirExplore
from 2014	Boeing 737-800 (passenger)	First 737-800 (OM-GEX) in 2014, then gradual switch to an all-Next-Generation fleet
from August 2022	Boeing 737-800 as freighter	First freighter OM-EDA, a 737-800 converted to a freighter

According to AirExplore, the fleet in spring 2026 comprises nine Boeing 737-800s for passengers and two 737-800 freighters. The passenger aircraft have 189 seats in one class – the same density you know from low-cost airlines. That is no coincidence: many customers are leisure or low-cost airlines that expect a 737 that fits seamlessly into their own fleet.

The freighters are converted passenger aircraft. How the conversion variants differ is shown on the page for the Boeing 737-800BCF and 737-800SF. From the outside they are given away by the large cargo door on the left side of the fuselage ahead of the wing and the missing cabin windows.

If you have followed AirExplore for a while, you still remember the Boeing 737-300 and the 737-400 from the early years. The Classic generation differs from the Next Generation in the wings and engines, among other things. How to separate the generations cleanly is explained in Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart. The manufacturer of all types is Boeing.

How to recognize AirExplore

In everyday operation there is hardly a uniform livery by which you could recognize AirExplore from a distance. Depending on the contract, the aircraft fly neutral white, with small titles or even completely in the customer’s colors. The most important feature is therefore the registration.

Slovak aircraft carry the prefix OM-. AirExplore has registered many of its passenger aircraft with registrations following the pattern OM-?EX – such as OM-GEX, OM-LEX, OM-NEX or OM-PEX, taken over in October 2025. The freighters, by contrast, run under other combinations such as OM-EDA. If you see an OM- on the fuselage of a 737-800, a look at the tracker is almost always worthwhile.

When photographing, the rule is: always take a picture in which the registration is readable as well. With changing liveries, it is often the only proof that you really caught the AirExplore aircraft. How to collect registrations systematically is shown in the article Collecting registrations, and the basics are in Understanding aircraft registrations.

Customers and deployments

The list of clients is long and constantly changing. Some stations are well documented publicly:

• Ryanair: In 2015 AirExplore was, by its own account, the first ACMI partner of Ryanair and helped build up the Ryanair base in Bratislava.
• Enter Air: Since 2024 AirExplore has flown for the Polish charter airline Enter Air. In 2024 it was four 737-800s; in summer 2026 two 737-800s with 189 seats are in use from Katowice between May and October.
• Air Peace: From November 2024 to March 2025 AirExplore leased four aircraft on damp lease to the Nigerian airline.
• Palau Pacific Airways: In a long-term project the 737-800 OM-GEX flew for the airline from Palau in the Pacific.

Over the years further deployments were added, including in Asia, Iraq and Africa. During the Covid pandemic AirExplore flew medical goods, humanitarian aid and repatriation flights. The airline also holds an approval from the US Department of Transportation for flights to the US.

A short excursion into scheduled service remained an episode: from summer 2020, together with the Slovak travel portal Pelikan, AirExplore offered flights from Bratislava to Split, with Košice–Zadar and Bratislava–Stockholm added later. These routes no longer exist.

Putting it in context: AirExplore and the competition

In the European ACMI market, AirExplore is a mid-sized provider. It shares the basic principle – aircraft and crew for other airlines’ schedules – with GetJet Airlines and Heston Airlines from Lithuania or SmartLynx Airlines from Latvia. The difference lies mainly in the fleet: while many competitors operate Airbus A320s or mixed fleets, AirExplore sticks consistently to the 737-800. For customers with their own 737 fleet such as Enter Air or Ryanair, that is an advantage because passengers hardly notice a difference.

Spotting AirExplore

The most obvious place is Bratislava Airport, the airline’s home and technical base. Aircraft stand here between two contracts or in maintenance, and with a bit of luck you also see one of the freighters. Because Bratislava is only around 50 kilometers from Vienna Airport, a visit combines well with a tour to Schwechat – tips for that are in Plane spotting in Vienna-Schwechat.

Outside Slovakia, everything depends on the current contract. In summer 2026 Katowice is the most reliable place because two AirExplore 737s are stationed there for Enter Air. From there they fly to vacation destinations around the Mediterranean, so you can catch them at typical leisure airports as well. In Germany AirExplore aircraft turn up rather sporadically, for example on sports charters, special flights or as a replacement aircraft.

The easiest way to plan is with a flight tracker: search for the ICAO code AXE or individual OM- registrations and watch where the aircraft are currently out and about. How to set up alerts for specific aircraft is shown in the guide to notifications for aircraft, types and airlines.

Common mix-ups

• Equating the flight number with the operating airline – at AirExplore, a service provider’s 737 almost always flies under another airline’s number.
• Taking the customer’s look for the customer’s aircraft – a 737 in another airline’s colors can still carry an OM- registration.
• Taking every OM- 737 for AirExplore without checking – the prefix only shows the country of registration. The tracker code AXE provides clarity.
• Logging a freighter as a passenger aircraft – the large cargo doors and missing windows give away the converted 737-800.
• Confusing Classic and NG – the 737-300 and -400 from the early days are historic; currently AirExplore flies only the 737-800.
• Equating AirExplore with KlasJet – both belong to the same group and have joint management but remain separate airlines.

Conclusion

AirExplore is an airline you rarely see consciously but often experience unnoticed. From a single 737-400 it has become an ACMI specialist with an all-737-800 fleet that flies for leisure airlines in Europe as well as for airlines in Africa or the Pacific. For spotters, a close look at the registration pays off: behind an inconspicuous 737 in vacation traffic there is often a Slovak aircraft with a history of its own.