airBaltic Training sells its Boeing 737 full flight simulator, putting a definitive end to the 737 era for the Latvian airline.
After airBaltic officially became Airbus A220-only operator the previous year, the last reminder of its previous fleet, the Boeing 737 full flight simulator, left its training arm.
airBaltic Training sold the machine to an unidentified French company, the airline confirmed on July 19, 2021. The simulator was brought in 2010 and in total, 44 companies used it for training, logging together 50,000 hours.
airBaltic grounded its last three remaining Boeing 737 aircraft in March 2020. In total, 20 737s, the -300 and -500 variants, have passed through the airline’s fleet since the 2000s. In contrast, the air carrier already has 27 A220s, all in the -300 variant, and expects to boost the number to 50 by 2024.
“airBaltic will be operating 50 Airbus A220-300 aircraft already by early 2024, meaning that the crew training needs of the company will significantly outweigh the current capacity,” Pauls Cālītis, airBaltic Chief Operations Officer, is cited in the company’s statement as saying.
“By concluding Boeing 737 training, we will be able to purchase and install a second state-of-the-art Airbus A220 full flight simulator in the future,” Cālītis said.