airBaltic to wet-lease four Airbus A320 aircraft for the summer 2023 season

The Latvian national airline airBaltic announces that during the summer season of 2023, it will wet-lease four additional aircraft short-term – to meet the increasing passenger demand and ensure a successful performance of planned flights. To support these efforts, a partnership with the leading narrow-body ACMI and charter operator Avion Express has been established, adding the Airbus A320-232 aircraft of 180 seats to the fleet of airBaltic.

In total, two of the aircraft will operate out of the Riga base, starting from March 26 to October 28, while one will be based in Vilnius and another in Tallinn, from May 1 to October 28.

Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic: “Although the challenges, caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine is still being felt, the aviation industry is gradually stabilizing. As a result, passenger demand for air travel is increasing. At the same time, the industry as a whole continues to face technical parts supply chain issues, which means we need additional capacity to carry all passengers, avoiding flight cancellations. Therefore, this summer airBaltic will be cooperating with Avion Express, which aircraft offer even more seats, thus allowing us to carry a greater amount of passengers.”

Prior to the partnership agreement, airBaltic conducted full-volume technical and quality inspections of all the aircraft to ensure complete customer satisfaction.

The wet-leased aircraft will be available in two configurations, with burgundy red leather seats and blue textile seats. The onboard ambience will feature airBaltic-branded white headrest covers, Baltic Outlook inflight magazine, and the airline’s safety cards. Furthermore, the crew of Avion Express has been instructed to detail, in order to ensure the same high standard of service as airBaltic.

The Airbus A320-232 aircraft of Avion Express (registration numbers: 9H-AMI, 9H-AMK, 9H-MLY, 9H-MLX) have been manufactured in the period from 2008 to 2011.

Avion Express is the leading narrow-body ACMI and charter operator operating an Airbus A320 family aircraft. Working in the field for over 18 years, have established a long-term partnership with clients in Europe and are also operating in Africa, Asia-Pacific, South America. Avion Express is a family member of Avia Solutions Group, a leading aerospace services group with what has become almost 100 offices and production facilities worldwide.

airBaltic provides flights to more than 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and Tampere, offering connections to a wide range of destinations in the airline’s route network in Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East.