Due to the package tour industry's seasonality, Air Europe needed to ensure that it had high capacity through the entire June–September peak season: the airline needed to have finance in place to pay up-front for the deposits to take over the delivery slots of three brand-new Boeing 737-200 Advanced aircraft that had originally been booked by another airline that been forced to cancel its order. Financing these aircraft, which were due to roll off Boeing's production line during May 1979, was its biggest challenge of that year.