airBaltic to phase out Boeing 737 fleet a year ahead of schedule

By February 21, 2019 January 16th, 2020 General News

The Latvian airline, airBaltic, will end its Boeing 737 fleet operations in autumn 2019, a year ahead of its original plan, aiming to minimise fleet complexity with a fleet of only Airbus A220-300 aircraft.

So far the airline has received 14 of its A220-300 orders, with eight more new aircraft joining this year. 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.

“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,” commented Martin Gauss, chief executive officer of airBaltic. “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.”

The airline added in a statement that the A220-300 had “performed beyond company’s expectations” citing a “better overall performance” as well as fuel efficiency and passenger and staff convenience.

airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius. In summer 2019 the airline will introduce five new destinations from Riga to Dublin, Stuttgart and Lviv, as well as Kos and Menorca.