Latvian flag-carrier airBaltic has taken delivery of its 36th Airbus A220-300 aircraft, registered YL-ABJ. This is the fourth of eight planned A220-300 aircraft deliveries in 2022.
According to airBaltic, the airline has carried around 8 million passengers and completed more than 92, 000 flights on the Airbus A220-300 aircraft.
By 2024, the airline expects to have a total of 50 A220-300s. In addition, airBaltic has options to purchase an extra 30 A220-300 jets. The airline is currently the world’s largest operator of the Airbus A220-300.
Greetings to the newest addition to our fleet – YL-ABJ! This morning we accepted our 36th @Airbus A220-300 jet. This is the fourth of eight planned Airbus aircraft deliveries for us this year. pic.twitter.com/I1xEbft3kH
— airBaltic (@airBaltic) May 28, 2022
In mid-April 2022, airBaltic said it would wet-lease a portion of its A220s to other airlines for summer 2022 after the carrier was forced to cease operations in Ukraine and Russia owning to the ongoing war.
airBaltic has already signed contracts for nine A220s to be leased on an ACMI basis to Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) and Eurowings. airBaltic is also in the process of signing wet-lease contracts for an additional two aircraft freed up from Ukrainian and Russian destinations.
In early May 2022, the Latvian carrier announced that it had leased a Boeing 737-900ER aircraft on an ACMI basis from Ukraine International Airlines (UIA).
The Boeing 737-900ER has been operating since May 1, 2022. The decision to wet-lease additional aircraft short-term came due to the “impact caused by the global supply chain issues”.
“It is now a very challenging time for the Ukrainian people and their national airline,” Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic said. “By temporarily wet leasing their aircraft, we are also providing short term work to the employees of Ukraine International Airlines.”