For the forthcoming summer season, airBaltic said that it will lease four more airplanes from four different carriers, citing Pratt & Whitney engine turnaround delays. The Riga Airport (RIX)-based airline earlier declared that it would increase its capacity for the three summer months of 2023 by acquiring four Airbus A320s from Avion Express. The airline has now agreed to lease four more aircraft from Cyprus Airways, which runs regularly scheduled flights, as well as Estonian Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance (ACMI) operators XFly, Danish Air Transport (DAT), and Romanian Carpatair. Airbus A320s from DAT, Cyprus Airlines, and XFly, as well as an A319 from Carpatair, are to be leased by airBaltic temporarily.
"We have a strong commitment to upholding our end of the bargain with customers and business partners. Martin Gauss, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of airBaltic, stated that the prolonged turnaround times for Pratt & Whitney servicing the engines are causing operational interruption for airBaltic.
Although P&W is a "long-term partner of airBaltic," according to Gauss, it was unable to keep its "promise on the faster turnaround times," which forced the Latvian airline to scurry to wet lease capacity from other carriers and ACMI operators. Even some of the wet-leased aircraft will provide extra capacity to clients flying with airBaltic during the summer, so Gauss is still "optimistic." The Airbus A220-300 aircraft, which serves as the foundation of our operations, will continue to carry the vast majority of our passengers in the interim, according to Gauss.
AirBaltic has also agreed to wet lease 14 of its own Airbus A220-300 to other airlines for the same summer 2023 timeframe. A net loss of €54.2 million ($58.3 million) for the Latvian airline in 2022 marked a significant improvement from the loss of €135.7 million ($146.2 million) in 2021. In all, airBaltic's fleet consists of 39 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, each of which is propelled by a Pratt & Whitney 1500G engine. 10 are currently inactive, five are undergoing maintenance, and the remaining quintuple are kept at RIX, according to data from ch-aviation.com.