airBaltic to temporarily wet-lease additional aircraft for early summer season

The Latvian national airline airBaltic announces that in the period of March 27 to May 31, 2023, it will temporarily wet-lease additional aircraft short-term. Such conditions have arisen as a result of the manufacturer’s inability to fulfil the obligations of engine maintenance in a timely manner. To meet the increasing passenger demand and to ensure the successful performance of planned flights without cancellations, also the aircraft of XFly (Bombardier CRJ-900NG – 88 seats), Danish Air Transport (Airbus A320-232 – 180 seats), Carpatair (Airbus A319-100 – 150 seats), and Cyprus Airways (Airbus A320-232 – 180 seats) will operate flights of airBaltic.

Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic: “We are strongly committed to our contractual obligations to passengers and partners. However, the extended turnaround times for Pratt & Whitney servicing the engines are causing operational disruption for airBaltic. They, as a long-term partner of airBaltic, could not keep the given promise again on the improved turnaround times. Therefore, airBaltic is contracting replacement capacity in form of ACMI wet-lease aircraft.”

“While we understand this is an unfortunate situation, we remain optimistic that it will be resolved soon. Moreover, some of the wet-leased aircraft offer even more seats, allowing us to carry a greater number of passengers. In the meantime, we are taking all the necessary measures to ensure that most of our passengers continue to be transported by the backbone of our operations – the Airbus A220-300 aircraft,” Gauss concluded.

As reported previously, airBaltic has also established a partnership with Avion Express, adding four Airbus A320-232 aircraft with 180 seats to the fleet of airBaltic for the summer season 2023.

Before the partnership agreement, airBaltic conducted full-volume technical and quality inspections of all the aircraft to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Important to emphasise that airBaltic cooperates only with airlines that are certified in accordance with the European Aviation Safety requirements. The average age of the specific aircraft is 12 years. Furthermore, the crew of wet-lease carriers has been instructed to detail, in order to ensure the same high standard of service as airBaltic.

To fulfil its contractual obligations and follow the business plan, at the same time airBaltic will continue to lease out 14 of its aircraft to other airlines, during the summer season 2023.