The strange case of Air Baltic: it has a super-cool fleet, but flies passengers in old junk cars
It leases its A220s to other airlines and flies its customers on old planes crushed like sardines, here are the miracles of wetlease
AirBaltic
RIX
It is a strange case, that of Air Baltic. The Riga-based airline has one of the world's largest fleets of Airbus A220-300s, The 'coolest' medium-range aircraft of the moment with its interior configured in rows of five seats (2+3), its spacious cabin, large windows, extreme quietness and remarkable range.
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In Riga a few years ago, they saw this coming and managed to grab a large number of A220s (today there are 42), making it their only airplane model, before half the world realized what a beautiful airplane it was and ordered bundles of them, sending Airbus into crisis, which today cannot keep up with the amount of orders it receives.
Of course, Air Baltic has done some great marketing with its A220s, in part by outfitting them with very eye-catching liveries.
Then an Italian passenger, one mid-summer afternoon, boards for Riga at Malpensa convinced he was flying on one of the Baltic airline's A220s, and ... he finds himself on an old Airbus A320 with no insignia, with the wrinkled faux leather interior and the knees in the mouth, since the 320 is 'crammed' with 180 seats, which is the maximum possible For that type of airplane.
But how, wonders the Italian passenger, who is getting a three-hour flight on a 'jalopy': what about the A220s? A220s partly are on the ground, parked, as a result of the difficulty in finding spare parts for Pratt & Whitney engines.
January, Air Baltic CEO Martin Gauss, had explained that by the summer of 2023 his company would be forced to take in wet leasing (i.e., with a formula that includes aircraft and crew) at least five aircraft in order to meet peak season demand, which also happened in summer 2022.
The jets are A320s 'provided' by Avion Exprees Malta, a specialist leasing operator based in Valletta.
They are 15 years old (and not 4-5 like the average Air Baltic A220) and are former Wizz Air, also passed by Eurowings. But the point is another. And it upsets the Italian passenger: why, while it is true that Air Baltic currently has eight A220s grounded for technical reasons, it is also true that for the current summer season it has in turn wet-leased to other airlines the beauty of 14 of its A220s, many of which are flying Swiss.
Keeping which he would not have to 'rent' old A320s.
Why, then, does he do it? Because, evidently, by leasing out its new, efficient and cool A220s for the 3-4 months of the summer season and leasing out old and outdated A320s, it makes a nice profit margin. And the Italian passenger -- stick to the A320.
