Latvian flag carrier airBaltic is a fascinating airline. airBaltic has a massive fleet of Airbus A220-300s (the airlinehopes to have 100 of these by 2030), with a large network to and from Northern Europe, in particular to Riga, Latvia (RIX), Tallinn, Estonia (TLL), and Vilnius, Lithuania (VNO).
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About 10 years ago Uzbekistan Airways served RIX-JFK as 5th freedom.
I believe Air Baltic had a codeshare on these flights.
There was talk of them getting the A330-800neo some months ago. Talk was that they could fill this plane during winters to Dubai and elsewhere in Summer.
Maybe it does not have to be a widebody, RIX and TLL sits nicely within Airbus A321XLR range to multiple points in the US and Canada.
Beeing a valued customer, Airbus might move the forward to some attractive production slots?
This fascinating airline sits constantly pretty close to bankruptcy as they are leveraged to the max. basically question is if EU rules stay the same to get Latvian state to bail them out.
I think airlines everywhere are offering up their first-born child to get their hands on the new XLR.
As someone who might or might not know pilots working in BT, there are internal talks of the airline looking to acquire widebodies from Airbus and interest from LH in the near future (though the latter is more publicly rumored for the past few years due to BT’s relationship with Swiss)
Air Baltic has plans to go for pan-European approach rather than operating solely from Baltic hubs. They intend to base a couple of their aircraft around the continent in the upcoming years. Thus one shouldn't think of it solely in terms of Baltics - US routes.
Besides, no one said this is intended for regular flights. They may only have some charters in mind.
Air Baltic also wet leases to many carriers around Europe. It is also not averse at operating from bases not in its 'home' countries of Latvia, Estona, and Lithuania. I wouldn't be surprised if this to start flights from another country. There are certain airports where there is no transatlantic flights but where there has been previous service and deman. It would be possible with A220 - for example London City, although that is a bit more complicated as the UK has now left the EU. Milan Linate would be another one (as the Milanese hate using Malpensa due to how far away it is), although not sure if the A220 quite has the range for that.
Airbaltic became ACMI company, this summer 17 planes will be flying for Lufthansa group. Permission to fly in US, would enable BT to operate as ACMI for US companies. There might be talks with US carriers to operate as ACMI. Chances that BT will open transatlantic routes in the near future for its own network is minimal.
A220-300 which airBaltic has its not certified/approved to operate in London City.
They already do. airBaltic have some planes based in Gran Canaria (though only during the winter season) and Tampere.
don't rule it out. Air Baltic has deepened its codeshare with SkyTeam airlines and DL.
Delta could easily sell a couple A330-200s
The massive A220 fleet is partly oversized during European winter. But there is demand Caribbean-US exactly during this time. A temporary hub in a French/Dutch Caribbean Island to operate flights to the US would likely make sense.
Air Baltic should buy the Airbus A330neo-800. Then they could fly non stop to the USA.
Interesting - they obviously have massive feed from ex-USSR and the broader region.
Air Baltic recently made a hub in Gran Canaria. Could an A220 make the distance to - say - Miami?
Latvia-Azores-Boston/JFK? Latvia-Bilbao-JFK? Latvia-Shannon-to any US destination to take advantage of US Customs pre-clearance in Ireland.
It’s such a successful aircraft that Air Baltic wet leases half its fleet and KA (your new wet dream) is dumping their sub fleet instead of ordering more. Twit. (Replace the “i” with an “a”)
Airbus and AirBaltic have announced some time ago that they are working on steep approach certification to serve LCY with the A220-300. This is the only airport they can't fly to. Timeline has not been communicated.
I don't see them flying TATL from there without a new Business Class product for those flights. Let alone questions of takeoff weight and range.
Most likely they just to be able to wet lease in the US.
If I recall correctly Air Baltic's CEO has repeatedly stated they were interested in the A321's longer ranged variants so I would hazard a guess they may go for these.
It's a stretch, but the A220's range is 3,500nm and RIX-BOS is 3,400nm. This is of course if they're looking at flights from RIX, there's potential to stop in DUB which would give them further reach into the US. They're also looking at opening more hubs across Europe. Breeze are already planning Transatlantic flights on the A220, so it wouldn't be surprising to see a European carrier doing this too.
It will replace SAS Copenhagen and Stockholm hub and be member of Star Alliance in the future.
Nothing to gain with TATL service. As recently speculated, B6 still having problems developing a profitable Europa footprint. Let Delta do the heavy work.
Greater returns via "wet leasing" to other Euro airlines considering AirBaltic wants a fleet of 100 in the near future. Need to keep all those airframes and crews busy.
This airline is almost completely owned by the government of Latvia, just FYI.
I just did two Air Baltic flights in a week. Both in business-class.
Here's what they get right:
Excellent staff.
On-time.
New planes.
Superb catering, including pre-ordering of meals and even selling business-class meals and booze in economy. In business-class, any flight over 1 hour gets a hot, 3-course meal. On flights under 1 hour, including the 30-minute Riga–Vilinus flight, it's a cold meal. $40 champagne is served in business-class.
Reasonably fair airfares.
Decent partnership with Delta and Air France that allows for some "hacks" to get a low business-class airfare from USA to Europe with 1 or 2 interesting connections.
But what they fall short on:
If you don't pre-order a meal, there is only one meal catered. No choice.
No dedicated lounges, not even a flagship lounge in Riga or Vilinus.
They almost exclusively use contracted staff outside Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. In Paris, they didn't do any special boarding zone for business-class and there were no priority tags for checked luggage.
Some of the flight times aren't ideal. If you arrive in Paris in the morning you have to wait 6-7-8 hours until the next Air Baltic flight to the Baltics or wherever. They don't have many mid-day flights.