Riga. The Latvian national airline airBaltic and the aircraft manufacturer Airbus announce the airline’s exercise of 10 Airbus A220-300 options. The options originate from the initial announcement made during the Dubai Airshow 2023, when airBaltic confirmed a firm purchase agreement for 30 Airbus A220-300 aircraft with purchase rights for an additional 20 aircraft of the type.
With this order and exercised options, airBaltic strengthens its commitment to the aircraft type. The airline plans to operate a fleet of close to 100 A220-300s by 2030. With a firm order for 90 A220-300s, airBaltic further reinforces its position as the largest A220 customer in Europe, and with 48 A220-300s in service, maintains its position as the largest operator in the world for this aircraft type.
Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic: “For the first time in the company’s history, airBaltic plans to operate a fleet of close to 100 A220-300 aircraft, and these exercised options are the next step in the right direction. Over the years, this aircraft type has proven its operational capabilities and value – it has been the backbone of our operations and has played an integral role in the international success story of airBaltic. By exercising these options, we are strengthening our unwavering support and trust in the A220 Programme and are looking forward to our fleet expansion over the upcoming years.”
Benoît de Saint-Exupéry, EVP Sales of Airbus Commercial Aircraft business said: “We are honored and thankful that airBaltic is placing its fourth follow-up order. This latest agreement from Latvia’s flag carrier is a strong endorsement of the superior value and operational opportunities offered by this latest generation aircraft. The A220is quite simply the most efficient aircraft in its size category, with a spacious cabin driving the best Net Promoter Scores with passengers wherever it is operated and the range capability to fly non-stop to any destination on the carrier’s current network and beyond.”
The deliveries for the additional 40 A220-300s are planned to start in 2026.
In late 2016, airBaltic became the global launch operator of the A220-300 and since May 2020 has been operating all its flights with a single-type fleet of this aircraft type. Thus far, the airline has carried more than 16.3 million passengers on the Airbus A220-300 aircraft. The airBaltic A220-300s have completed close to 183 thousand flights and flown more than 401 thousand block hours.
airBaltic operates more than 130 routes from Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Tampere, and, seasonally, Gran Canaria, offering connections to a wide range of destinations in the airline's route network in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucasus region. A complete schedule of airBaltic flights and tickets are available on the company's homepage at www.airbaltic.com.