The Dubai Airshow 2023 has seen quite a few aircraft orders, including from Emirates, FlyDubai, EgyptAir, and Royal Jordanian. Now Latvian flag carrier airBaltic has placed an impressive order as well.
In this post:
airBaltic orders up to 50 more Airbus A220s
airBaltic has just placed an incremental order for up to 50 additional Airbus A220-300s, consisting of 30 firm orders plus 20 options. This complements the carrier’s previous order for 50 of these jets, 44 of which are already in service.
airBaltic has made it clear that the airline hopes to operate a fleet of 100 jets by 2030. For context, airBaltic is an all-Airbus A220 operator. The airline was the launch customer for the A220-300 in 2016, and it’s currently the largest operator of this variant in the world. The airline has exclusively been flying A220s since 2020, with no signs of that changing.
The Airbus A220-300 is an incredibly capable jet. airBaltic has equipped these planes with 145 seats, and the planes have great fuel economy (25% less fuel burn than previous generation aircraft), industry leading passenger comfort (thanks in large part to the 2-3 configuration), and amazing range (up to 3,450 nautical miles).
Here’s what airBaltic CEO Martin Gauss had to say about this order:
“This day marks a significant milestone in the history of airBaltic – our plans for the first time ever to operate a fleet of 100 aircraft by 2030. For almost seven years already, the Airbus A220-300 has been the backbone of our operations and has played an integral role in the international success story of airBaltic. Being the global launch customer of the Airbus A220-300, we continue to be a proud ambassador of it. We are grateful to our partners at Airbus for the incredible support, trust, and collaboration over these years.”
The success & growth of airBaltic makes me happy
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 has grown slowly but steadily in recent years, with a level of consistency that you also don’t see from many airlines, let alone ones owned by the government
- 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
Oh, airBaltic’s CEO is also pretty darn cool, as he’s an Airbus A220 captain himself. What a guy!
Bottom line
airBaltic has placed a firm order for an additional 30 Airbus A220-300s, with options for 20 more jets. This complements the carrier’s current order of 50 A220s, 44 of which are already flying. airBaltic is such an impressive airline, and is aiming to have 100 planes by 2030.
What do you make of airBaltic’s A220 order?
As per a recent comment by the CEO of AirBaltic, the airline is making money via a side hustle of wet leasing its fleet to other Euro flag carriers. The A220 lends itself very well to this format in the European theater.
My only concern is the eventual size of the fleet (approx 100 units). AirBaltic will need to open bases in other parts of Europe (Mediterranean or Canary Islands) or hope Russian eventually opens up to justify such a fleet.
Will be interesting to see how many of these are leased out to other airlines. Air Baltic practically ran Swiss' summer schedule with their aircraft and personnel - and it wasn't great (based in Zurich here). I wonder if this is their continued strategy - cheap labor, fuel efficient planes, expensive markets via lease.
Hmm, what wasn't great? I did take many LX flights operated by BT, and I have to say that I enjoyed them more than regular LX flights.
Interesting - we had a spectacular experience with this back in October. Flew JFK-ZRH-NAP and was very pleasantly surprised to see Air Baltic operating the second leg. I've flown them a few times and it's been fantastic each time, and this experience was no different. It was far better than the return from FCO-ZRH which Swiss actually operated.
Ah - well maybe it was just a number of unlucky experiences. I found that their planes were often late where LX operated relatively on time (LHR flights in particular). I am partial to the Swiss crews as well - I find them to be quite polished and professional which was different from Baltic.
The only thing that is holding the A220 back is the lack of production capacity.
Airbus has said it is delaying expanding production until it fixes cost issues w/ the program as it was inherited from Bombardier but you have to think that multiple orders of dozens more jets at a time keeps the existing production capacity booked well into the future.
And that is all before a potential A220-500.
Technically, Bombardier hit...
The only thing that is holding the A220 back is the lack of production capacity.
Airbus has said it is delaying expanding production until it fixes cost issues w/ the program as it was inherited from Bombardier but you have to think that multiple orders of dozens more jets at a time keeps the existing production capacity booked well into the future.
And that is all before a potential A220-500.
Technically, Bombardier hit a homerun w/ the C Series and Airbus artfully stole the program from Bombardier and the Canadians. Financially and organizationally, Airbus will turn the A220 into the jet that Bombardier never could.
The funny thing is that Airbus has Trump and his idiotic trade wars to thank for this.
no, the C Series ended up in Airbus' arms because Boeing tried to shut down the C Series and ended up losing.
Politics had nothing to do with it.
How did they "steal" the program?
It's good to have more A220 frames out there. Great planes to fly on.
This will not be a success. They have a fleet of not even 10 aircraft at the moment so this growth is unscalable.
They operate 44 A220s already
Chris - I know, I employed a figure of speech.
I was unaware quoting a wildly incorrect figure was a figure of speech.
Spewing unsubstantiated blanket statements like your above comment is a blight on intellectual integrity. It is the refuge of those who are unwilling or incapable of engaging in meaningful, evidence-based dialogue. Such empty rhetoric does nothing but poison the well of rational discourse, allowing ignorance to fester and misinformation to thrive. In a society that should prize critical thinking and informed discussions, those who persist in making unsupported generalizations reveal a distressing lack of intellectual...
Spewing unsubstantiated blanket statements like your above comment is a blight on intellectual integrity. It is the refuge of those who are unwilling or incapable of engaging in meaningful, evidence-based dialogue. Such empty rhetoric does nothing but poison the well of rational discourse, allowing ignorance to fester and misinformation to thrive. In a society that should prize critical thinking and informed discussions, those who persist in making unsupported generalizations reveal a distressing lack of intellectual rigor. I must insist on a higher standard: one that values precision, evidence, and the unwavering commitment to well-founded arguments in all interactions.
By using such hard-to-read, scholarly language in an everyday travel and aviation forum, you’re only proving your point of not knowing much about the airBaltic fleet. The not-very-famous Latvījans have run a massively successful little airline that all of Europe can be proud of. Congratulations, Latvīja!
"Latvīja"? Really? LOL. We all see your holier-than-thou "ATTITUDE" "ATTENTION SEEKING" spelling it that way
Latvīja"? Really? LOL
You DO realize that that's how it's spelled in... (wait for it) ...Lavian, do you not?
Coming from native Latvian - it's Latvija, not Latvīja.
Oops, Leo — my bad, I thought it contained a macron there, given how much Latvian loves its macrons. Latin and Romanised Japanese are the only other languages extensively using macrons that I know of. Latvian is a very unique language indeed, and a very neglected one, unlike many others in Europe.
It does contains a macron.
You must be fun at a dinner party…. Not!
Alright, time to get this Tom Rodgers guy out of here. No place for homophobia or other bigotry on this site.