Latvian national airline airBaltic has announced a firm purchase agreement for 30 Airbus A220-300 aircraft with purchase rights for an additional 20 aircraft of the same type.
With this order, airBaltic said that it intends to operate a fleet of 100 A220-300s by 2030, making the airline the largest A220 customer in Europe, while it continues to be the largest A220-300 operator in the world.
Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic, said that this was a “significant milestone” in the airline’s history. “Our plans for the first time ever to operate a fleet of 100 aircraft by 2030,” he said. “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.”
Christian Scherer, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International, thanked airBaltic for being an ambassador for the A220. “The A220 has been the instrument for airBaltic in its success and growth thus far and we are particularly proud to be extending this partnership well into the future with this latest order,” he said. "The A220 offers a unique capability in terms of range, performance, and not to forget, passenger appeal. It is a gamechanger for our customers in this important market segment, which we are serving with less fuel-burn, lower emissions and noise, making the A220 a global citizen of choice.”
In late 2016, airBaltic became the global launch operator of the A220-300 and since May 2020 operates all its flights with a single-type fleet of this aircraft type. Thus far, the airline has carried more than 13 441 000 passengers on the Airbus A220-300 aircraft. The airBaltic A220-300s have completed over 150 000 flights and flown 328 000 block hours.