This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Lufthansa Group and airBaltic have announced that they’ve extended their wet lease agreement for a few more years, so expect to see lots of airBaltic planes operating Lufthansa Group routes.
In this post:
Lufthansa Group wet leasing up to 21 airBaltic A220s
Lufthansa Group and airBaltic have extended their partnership for an additional three years beyond the summer of 2025. With this, Lufthansa Group wet leases planes from airBaltic, meaning that airBaltic planes and crew operate flights on behalf of Lufthansa Group airlines, like Brussels Airlines and SWISS.
With this partnership, airBaltic will operate up to 21 planes on behalf of Lufthansa Group in the summer season, and up to five planes on behalf of Lufthansa Group in the winter season.
airBaltic, which is owned by the government of Latvia, operates a fleet consisting exclusively of Airbus A220-300s. A220s are lovely planes to fly, thanks to the 2-3 configuration, plus the modern cabin.
Lufthansa Group is increasingly emphasizing the value of a wet lease partnership like what it has with airBaltic. That’s because the airline group is noting that consumer demand is even more seasonal than before (especially with half decent yields), so it’s valuable for the airline to be able to add capacity in summer, without having excess aircraft in winter.
airBaltic is such an impressive operation
airBaltic is just such a breath of fresh air in the airline industry, in my opinion:
- The airline is government owned, yet despite that, is run with incredible discipline and like a for-profit operation
- The level of fleet consistency that airBaltic has been focused on is basically unrivaled, and I love how the airline just keeps doubling down on the same plane, as the synergies are amazing; airBaltic hopes to have a fleet of 100 A220s by 2030
- Despite having a tough several years (between the pandemic and the closure of Russian airspace), airBaltic has maintained its core strategy and has gotten creative, from leasing out its jets to other airlines, to setting up hubs at other destinations in winter
- I think airBaltic’s hustle of leasing out A220s to other operators is really smart and worth highlighting; the airline has lower labor costs than many other European countries, and the A220 is a plane that’s easy to lease out, when other airlines need additional capacity in peak season
There aren’t many airlines that simultaneously successfully run scheduled passenger flights while also leasing out their planes, but airBaltic is an example of an airline where it works. Now, as airBaltic continues to grow its fleet, I do wonder what will be done with planes in winter.
As you can see, Lufthansa Group is leasing airBaltic planes year-round, but we’re talking about a handful of planes in winter, and over four times as many planes in summer. Yes, airBaltic has gotten creative with setting up winter hubs, but ultimately there’s only so much demand any airline is going to have in winter.
There have also been rumors of Lufthansa Group potentially being interested in investing in airBaltic, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that become a reality.
Bottom line
Lufthansa Group and airBaltic have extended their partnership, whereby we’ll see Lufthansa Group wet lease up to 21 Airbus A220s in summer, and up to five jets in winter. The airlines have cooperated on a wet lease agreement for several years now, and that will be continuing.
What do you make of Lufthansa Group’s wet lease agreement with airBaltic?
BT will fly to charter destinations in southern Europe from the nordics during winter season
I could talk about how airBaltic’s all-A220 fleet is perfectly suited for Europe but not much of the rest of the world, but the pedant in me wants to make a small but niggling point…
There are some airlines whose names necessarily begin with lowercase letters, like airBaltic and easyJet. (Not JetBlue, though, despite what its logo apparently shows.) There are some more airlines whose names must not be written with a single uppercase...
I could talk about how airBaltic’s all-A220 fleet is perfectly suited for Europe but not much of the rest of the world, but the pedant in me wants to make a small but niggling point…
There are some airlines whose names necessarily begin with lowercase letters, like airBaltic and easyJet. (Not JetBlue, though, despite what its logo apparently shows.) There are some more airlines whose names must not be written with a single uppercase letter, especially the three from the Gulf: flydubai, flyadeal and flynas.
Given that Ben writes airBaltic correctly, it baffles me why he writes EasyJet with an uppercase E and, worst of all, FlyDubai with an uppercase F and D. (That’s not even taking into account the alliance with the big blue circle as its logo — that may be written in several ways, but I prefer Oneworld with a capital O, unlike many others who prefer it lowercase.)
End of pedant rant.
AirBaltic flies the 220 to Dubai and back. That's a LONG flight without power outlets, USB, etc.
@FNT - There are USB ports of course.
There weren't any USB ports on the two A220s that I flew with Air Baltic. I flew within the last month.
I regularly fly LX operated by Baltic and never had a bad experience. I love the A220s with the single seat business class on the left side. Honestly I don't notice much difference between Swiss and Baltic flights and tend to prefer Baltic due to the plane.
I flew Swiss from Zurich to CDG last year when Delta canceled my flight out of Zurich and Delta re-booked me on Swiss to CDG and then Air France from CDG. I really enjoyed my Swiss flight. But the lounge at Zurich was pretty weak, I thought, for business class. It was slightly better than KLM but not as nice as Air France. The wine selection was awful. At least the meal on the Zurich-Paris...
I flew Swiss from Zurich to CDG last year when Delta canceled my flight out of Zurich and Delta re-booked me on Swiss to CDG and then Air France from CDG. I really enjoyed my Swiss flight. But the lounge at Zurich was pretty weak, I thought, for business class. It was slightly better than KLM but not as nice as Air France. The wine selection was awful. At least the meal on the Zurich-Paris flight was good and they even served real champagne, not prosecco or some Swiss sparkling wine.
I flew Air Baltic in business twice in the last few weeks. These were their own flights.
Great service. Some of their FAs are ex-Emirates.
Better than average food with an awesome pre-order program. All flights in business have food. Anything over 1 hour is a three-course hot meal. Shorter flights have a cold meal, even a quick Riga to Helsinki or Stockholm flight.
Better than average wine list with real champagne. Economy passengers...
I flew Air Baltic in business twice in the last few weeks. These were their own flights.
Great service. Some of their FAs are ex-Emirates.
Better than average food with an awesome pre-order program. All flights in business have food. Anything over 1 hour is a three-course hot meal. Shorter flights have a cold meal, even a quick Riga to Helsinki or Stockholm flight.
Better than average wine list with real champagne. Economy passengers can pre-order wine and a business-class meal.
They have blankets and pillows in business.
Now, the bad:
No lounges, not even at Riga their hub. The contracted lounge there is pretty bad. All the ground staff at out-stations are contracted.
No power or USB outlets. I also don’t think they have WiFi. I couldn’t find a signal.
If you don’t pre-order a meal in business, they only have one meal catered.
Schedule is limited. Lots of flights but generally only morning and evening. Trying to fly Air Baltic at mid-afternoon isn’t easy at least the routes I looked at. I had about a 7-hour layover between my Air France flight landing in CDG and my Air Baltic connecting flight. On the return, I had to overnight in a hotel at Frankfurt before flying Delta. This despite a partnership with Delta. The flight schedule isn’t really aligned for transatlantic flights.
Exciting collaboration! Lufthansa leveraging airBaltic’s A220s is a brilliant way to meet demand without massive investments. It’s a win-win for both airlines.
> meaning that airBaltic passengers and crew operate flights on behalf of Lufthansa Group airlines
Call me anxious, but I would avoid flying planes operated by airBaltic passengers... ;)
@ Gerwanese -- Hah, whoops. Fixed, thanks!
I really hope that the plans to open more hubs will become a reality. AirBaltic is among my top 3 airlines in terms of customer experience and it would be nice to have them as an option on more routes. Sadly the cooperation with LHG makes me a bit sceptical.
I’ve flown several LH/LX flights operated by Air Baltic this year and I didnt like the customer experience and will avoid them in the future.
A220 are amazing planes though.