airBaltic to temporarily wet-lease aircraft from XFly, Carpatair, Danish Air Transport and Cyprus Airways for early summer season

RIGA - The Latvian national airline airBaltic announced that in the period of March 27 and May 31, 2023, it will temporarily wet-lease additional aircraft short-term, LETA learned from airBaltic. 

Such conditions have arisen as a result of the manufacturer’s inability to fulfill the obligations of engine maintenance in a timely manner. To meet the increasing passenger demand and to ensure a successful performance of planned flights without cancellations, also the aircraft of XFly, Danish Air Transport, Carpatair, and Cyprus Airways will operate flights of airBaltic.

Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic, said: “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.”

At the same time, airBaltic noted that some of the wet-leased aircraft offer more seats, allowing the company to carry greater amount of passengers.

"In the meantime, we are taking all the necessary measures to ensure that the majority 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 of 180 seats to the fleet of airBaltic for the summer season 2023.

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

airBaltic is a joint stock company that was established in 1995. Its primary shareholder is the Latvian state, which holds 97.96 percent of the stock, while the rest of the shareholders hold 2.04 percent.