airBaltic to phase out its Boeing 737 fleet in 2019

Latvian airline airBaltic announces that it will end its Boeing 737 fleet operations in autumn 2019, one year ahead of the original plan. The airline aims to minimize complexity and benefit from the additional efficiency of the Airbus A220-300 aircraft which will be the only jet type operated by airBaltic.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “Airbus A220-300 is the aircraft of our future and, by phasing out the Boeing 737, we will have the youngest jet fleet in Europe. The introduction of Airbus A220-300 has been very successful and provided the additional efficiency any airline is seeking in the highly competitive aviation market. Thanks to the good overall performance we took a decision to introduce a single type fleet of up to 80 (50 firm order and 30 options) Airbus A220-300 aircraft by 2022.”

So far airBaltic has received 14 of its Airbus A220-300 orders and eight new aircraft will join this year. The Airbus A220-300 has performed beyond the company’s expectations, delivering better overall performance, fuel efficiency and convenience for both passengers and staff. In late 2018, airBaltic phased out three of its Boeing 737-500 aircraft. Currently, the airline still operates six Boeing 737-300 and two Boeing 737-500 jets.

The Airbus A220-300 offers an excellent flying experience with such benefits for passengers as wider seats, larger windows, more hand luggage space in the cabin, improved lavatories and much more. The new aircraft is also considerably quieter – with a four times smaller noise footprint. Moreover, at the moment it is the greenest commercial aircraft in the world, as it is the first aircraft to have a transparent declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, helping to reduce CO₂ and NO_X emissions by 20% and 50% respectively.

airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, offering the largest variety of destinations and convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East. In summer 2019, airBaltic will introduce five new destinations from Riga to Dublin, Stuttgart and Lviv as well as Kos and Menorca.

February 20, 2019