airBaltic is temporarily wet-leasing additional aircraft on a short-term basis to cover for Airbus A220 aircraft that are out of action because of delays with engine maintenance.
The carrier is leasing:
XFly Bombardier CRJ-900NG, with 88 seats.
Danish Air Transport - Airbus A320-232 with 180 seats.
Carpatair - Airbus A319-100 with 150 seats.
Cyprus Airways - Airbus A320-232 with 180 seats.
These are in addition to the four Airbus A320-232 aircraft with 180 seats wet-leased for the whole summer season from Avion Express.
Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic: “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.”
"While we understand that this is an unfortunate situation, we remain optimistic that it will be resolved soon. Moreover, some of the wet-leased aircraft offer even more seats, allowing us to carry a 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.
While the Latvian Government funded airline is wet-leasing in aircraft to allow it to operate its full summer schedule with 20 new destinations, it is still leasing out 14 of its own Airbus A220 planes during this summer season.