AirBaltic welcomes its 45th Airbus A220 jet

The Latvian carrier airBaltic has welcomed a new state-of-the-art Airbus Aircraft A220-300 to its fleet this week.  The jet, registered YL-ABS is the 45th beautiful addition to the airline's single-type fleet. Thus far the airline has carried 13 441 000 passengers, completed over 150 000 flights, and flown 328 000 block hours on the type.  

airBaltic is looking forward to an exciting future by continuing to grow with Airbus, the recent purchase agreement for an additional 30 aircraft is a significant step toward this. 

 

Air Canada's retro livery A220 making rare visit to St Johns today.

Air Canada's delightful retro livery adorned Airbus A220 jet is making a rare visit to St John's today as it operates flight AC678 from Montreal. 

The super-efficient twin jet is painted in the colours of the airline’s original name, Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA).  It is a special livery that pays tribute to the airline’s heritage, which can be traced back to its founding in 1937. 

The special livered jet,  registration C- GNBN, has mainly been flying between Edmonton and Vancouver in recent times, with the odd rotation to Los Angeles and Toronto.

Designed and built in Quebec, the Airbus A220-300, formally known as the Bombardier CS300, is an integral part of Air Canada’s fleet modernization and each A220 includes parts from 30 companies that are based in or have activities in Canada, making this aircraft a true testament to the importance of the aviation sector in Canada.

However, C- GNBN is not the first aircraft to bear this special livery in modern times, the special TCA livery first appeared in August 1997 for the airlines 60th birthday on a brand-new Airbus A319 registration C-FZUH. Air Canada was then the first airline in North America to operate the A319 and was also the first one to operate the Airbus A220-300.  After nearly 24 years in the fleet, the A319 C-FZUH was retired from the fleet in January 2021.

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The first Airbus A220-300 for Air Canada takes to the skies.

The first A220-300 (formally known as the Bombardier CSeries CS300) for Air Canada has successfully completed its inaugural test flight from the Mirabel A220 final assembly line in Canada. The first of 45 aircraft for Air Canada is scheduled to be delivered to the Montreal-based airline in the coming weeks.

With its first A220 commercial flight in early 2020, Canada’s flag carrier will become the first airline in Canada to operate the Canadian-designed and -built A220. It will also become the first carrier in North America to fly the A220-300 variant.

airBaltic gets its 21st Airbus A220-300 and the 100th A220 aircraft ever made

airBaltic in Canada celebrates its 21st Airbus A220-300, the 100th A220n a new livery

Executives of the Latvian government backed airline airBaltic have been in Mirabel, Canada over the last couple of days to celebrate the delivery of the firms 21st Airbus A220-300 jet.

The aircraft registered YL-AAU is the first to feature a new and allegedly 'improved' livery which from now on will be deployed on all the company's new aircraft. Apparently, the greener tails is supposed to emphasise airBaltic's commitment to becoming a more sustainable airline with one of the greenest fleets. 

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “We are truly proud to be the launch operator of the Airbus A220-300 aircraft which, being an integral part of airBaltic’s fleet over the last three years has demonstrated an outstanding performance. To introduce this aircraft was a forward-thinking decision that has most certainly paid off as A220 family aircraft are not only considerably more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly, but also more convenient for both passengers and staff. The vision of an all-Airbus A220 fleet by 2023 is the backbone of airBaltic’s Destination 2025 business plan and the celebration of our 21st A220-300 aircraft from the newest order marks another step towards the set aim.”

airBaltic Receives its 20th Airbus A220-300 and wants a US connection.

The Latvian airline airBaltic welcomed its 20th Airbus A220-300 on September 21, 2019, in Riga. The aircraft, with the registration YL-AAT, is the last one from airBaltic's original order. 

By the end of this year, the carrier expects to have 22 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, with those last two coming from a second order it made back in May last year for 30 aircraft and options for 30 more. 

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “We are delighted to receive our 20th aircraft and finalize the first order. The decision to order the aircraft in 2012 and then become the launch operator of the most modern jet aircraft the Airbus A220-300, was a successful one and we have benefited from it greatly. airBaltic is now on a stable growth path because we have made many important steps for our further development, and our fleet modernization has been one of them. In the future, our fleet will consist only of Airbus A220-300 aircraft and will be one of our strengths and competitive advantages.”

airBaltic to end 737 operations a year ahead of schedule

The Latvian government-backed airline airBaltic has confirmed it will call time on its Boeing 737 operations ahead of schedule.

The firm says its Boeing 737 fleet will be withdrawn from scheduled operation in the autumn of 2019, that is 12 months ahead of the firm's original plan. Towards the end of 2018, airBaltic phased out three of its Boeing 737-500 aircraft and currently operates six Boeing 737-300 and two Boeing 737-500 jets.

The airline says it wants to minimise fleet complexity as well as take full advantage of the additional efficiencies of operating a single type jet fleet will achieve.  Once all the older 737's are removed from operations airBaltic will be left with Bombardier Q400 turboprops while the jet of choice with will be Airbus A220-300.  

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “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. 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.”

Summer 2019 is hotting up for airBaltic

The summer is already hotting up for Latvian airline airBaltic, who in cooperation with the international tour operator Tez Tour Latvija has published its enhanced charter programme for the forthcoming summer season.

Staring in late April the firms will offer regular charter flights to a selection of five sunny leisure destinations. Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “When it comes down to summer holiday destinations, it is essential for airlines to have an offer in place several months before the season starts. We are delighted to continue our successful cooperation with Tez Tour Latvija and increase the number of direct charter flights from Riga to different holiday destinations.”

More expansion at Geneva for SWISS including daily flights to Frankfurt and Munich

More expansion for the Swiss airline of the Lufthansa Group will see the airline SWISS connect Geneva with the German cities of Munich and Frankfurt.

From March 31st the airline will operate the routes on a daily basis for a seven-month period. The airline will operate five flights a day between Geneva and Munich. Whilst there will be a choice of up to eight daily flights between Geneva and Frankfurt, of which four will be operated by SWISS and four by Lufthansa

These new flights will greatly enchance the connectiveity from Geneva and are designed to appeal to both business and leisure passengers. Swiss is also expanding its Geneva based fleet, with the addition of six summer destinations announced for 2019 and the introduction of regular service to the two German cities, Swiss will soon connect Geneva to 45 destinations. To meet this expansion of the route network, three new aircraft will complete Swiss’s short-haul fleet in Geneva, which will consist of seven CS300 and three CS100 by June 2019.

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(Images Swiss International Airlines)

airBaltic to start charter flights to Corfu

Photo airBaltic

The Government owned and financed Latvian carrier, airBaltic in cooperation with the international tour operator Mouzenidis Travel has announced that it will operate weekly charter flights to the beautiful and sunny Greek island of Corfu. 

Wolfgang Reuss, SVP Network Management of airBaltic: “We are excited to start cooperation with a new professional partner Mouzenidis Travel, further enhancing the variety of direct flights to sunny leisure destinations available to the Latvian passengers.”

SWISS repaints CS300 aircraft

to mark Fête des Vignerons 2019

The bright new special livery             Photo Swiss

SWISS, the international airline of Switzerland has lifted the covers on a specially painted livery on one of its advanced CS300 aircraft at its home base of Geneva Airport.

The aircraft has been given this bright and colourful special livery to honour and highlight this summer’s Fête des Vignerons festival in Vevey in Western Switzerland, for which SWISS is the principal supporting partner. 

The livery has been designed by Western Swiss artist Mathias Forbach (alias Fichtre) to mark this long living tradition. Festival director Daniele Finzi Pasca paid tribute to Fichtre’s artistic creation by serving as the “godparent” to the aircraft. The unveiling was also attended by Vaud State Councillor Philippe Leuba and Geneva State Councillor Serge Dal Busco. 

“Moxy” orders 60 Airbus A220-300 aircraft

The new US low-cost start up airline that has been codenamed 'Moxy' has confirmed a large order for the aircraft that was formally known as the Bombardier CS300 from its Cseries programme.

Moxy is the new airline venture led by David Neeleman, one of the industry’s most innovative entrepreneurs and founder of JetBlue Airways. In addition to JetBlue, Neeleman also founded Azul Brazilian Airlines and is the controlling investor in the revitalisation of TAP Air Portugal.

Plans for Moxy, a low-cost airline, were unveiled at the Farnborough International Air Show in July. “The A220-300 is the right airplane for a new airline that will be focused on passenger service and satisfaction,” said Neeleman. “With a low cost of operation and spacious cabin, the A220 will allow us to provide passengers with lower fares and a high quality, comfortable flying experience. The A220’s ability to operate profitably in thin, underserved markets across a broad spectrum of ranges is unique.”

JetBlue Airways firms up order for 60 Airbus A220-300 aircraft

JetBlue Airways has firmed up an order for 60 A220-300 aircraft, the larger model of the new, industry-leading A220 series.

Another major order for the aircraft that was once known as the Bombardier CSeries CS300 demonstrates the power of the Airbus name now behind the product.

“As we approach our 20th anniversary, the impressive range and economics of the highly efficient A220, combined with the outstanding performance of our existing fleet of Airbus A321 and restyled A320 aircraft, will help ensure we deliver the best on board experience to customers and meet our long-term financial targets as we continue disciplined growth into the future,” said Robin Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, JetBlue.

Airbus is taking the A220-300 (Formally known as the Bombardier CSeries CS300) on tour!

The European planemaker Airbus is taking an airBaltic A220-300 new-generation single-aisle aircraft on a tour of five cities in four countries as part of its world demonstration tour.

First, the sleek looking A220-300 is attending the Zhuhai airshow in China from today, November 5th until Thursday, November 8th before flying to Chengdu on November 9th. The aircraft will continue on its journey with a stopover in Koh Samui on November 10th before flying to Nepal's Kathmandu for November 11th. After that, the airBaltic A220 will go to Istanbul in Turkey on November 12th and then the lovely craft will fly to the home base of airBaltic, Riga, Latvia on November 14th.

Airbus believe this demonstration tour for the A220-300 is a great opportunity to show off the fast, technologically advanced, super efficient and spacious aircraft to the media and potential customers in their own local region.  It will offer the opportunity for airline bosses and journalists to get up close and personal to the aircraft and its outstanding characteristics, comfort, and performance and see the benefit for both operators and passengers alike.

airBaltic’s A220-300 features a comfortable cabin arrangement able to accommodate 145 passengers in true widebody comfort. The Latvian airline already operates 13 A220-300s out of a total of 50 ordered.

The A220 is the only aircraft purpose built for the 100-150 seat market, and it delivers unbeatable fuel efficiency and true widebody comfort in a single-aisle aircraft. The A220 brings together state-of-the-art aerodynamics, advanced materials and Pratt & Whitney’s latest-generation PW1500G geared turbofan engines to offer at least 20 percent lower fuel burn per seat compared to previous generation aircraft. With a range of up to 3,200 nm (5,020 km), the A220 offers the performance of larger single-aisle aircraft. With an order book of over 400 aircraft to date, the A220 has all the credentials to win the lion’s share of the 100- to 150-seat aircraft market.

(Photos Airbus )

Airbus is taking the A220-300 (Formally known as the Bombardier CSeries CS300) on tour!

Eventful week for airBaltic - New Arrival, Papal Passenger, Bumping Birds and more

The Latvian carrier airBaltic has had a very eventful week, the rapidly growing and well-respected carrier received its 12th Airbus A220, carried the Pope, suffered a bird strike and signed a deal with Jazz for maintenance. 

Looking resplendent in the bright standard airBaltic livery the airlines 12th Airbus A220 arrived on 22nd September. AirBaltic plans to have a fleet of 14 of the A220-300 aircraft, formally known as the Bombardier CSeries CS300. The fuel-efficient and passenger popular jets have room for 145 people, offering wider seats, larger windows, more hand luggage space in the cabin, improved lavatories and other passenger-friendly benefits.

The new aircraft is also much quieter – with a four times smaller noise footprint. Moreover, at the moment, it is the greenest commercial aircraft in the world, as it is the first aircraft to have a transparent declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, helping to reduce CO2 and NOX emissions by 20% and 50% respectively.

Hello A220-300 number 11 for airBaltic

Latvian airline and launch customer for the Bombardier CS300, airBaltic welcomed its eleventh example of the jet, now under the new model number of A220-300 from Airbus.  On the 25th August YL-CSK arrived at Riga to start its operation life on the rapidly expanding route network or airBaltic.

So far, the European airline has carried over 1 450 000 passengers on the Airbus A220-300 aircraft with every third airBaltic passenger flying on the aircraft. The Airbus A220-300’s have completed more than 14 000 flights for the airline and flown over 37 800 block hours.

Since the launch operations on 14th December 2016, airBaltic Airbus A220-300’s have been in 35 countries and landed in 70 airports. Most often, airBaltic fly Airbus A220-300’s to Moscow, Amsterdam, Paris, London and Barcelona.

JetBlue's order for 60 A220-300 aircraft confirmed.

JetBlue has confirmed today it has ordered 60 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, which is the renamed Bombardier CSeries CS300 today, powered by Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) PW1500G engines

The airline expects to start taking delivery of the fuel-efficient and technologically advanced regional passenger jet from 2020 and will be used to replace the carriers Embraer 190 aircraft. JetBlue also has placed an option for an additional 60 aircraft starting in 2025. 

JetBlue decided to make the order for the Airbus A220-300 after an intensive review to ensure the best financial performance and maximum flexibility of the airline’s fleet, while also providing its industry-leading customer experience.

The airline is also converting its order for 25 A320neos to the A321neo and adjusting the delivery schedule. “We are evolving our fleet for the future of JetBlue, and the A220-300’s impressive range and economics offer us flexibility and support our key financial and operating priorities,” said Robin Hayes, chief executive officer, JetBlue. “As we approach our 20th anniversary, the A220, combined with our A321 and restyled A320 fleet, will help ensure we deliver the best onboard experience to customers and meet our long-term financial targets as we continue disciplined growth into the future.”

Goodbye CSeries CS100 and CS300 and hello Airbus A220's

Airbus has revealed possibly the worst kept secret in the aviation world for the last few weeks, the new name for what was the Bombardier CSeries aircraft CS100 and CS300.  From now on, following the sell-off of the CSeries programme to Airbus, the aircraft will be known as the A220-100 and A220-300.

The European giant manufacturer held a special ceremony at its Henri-Ziegler Delivery Centre, near Toulouse, today, to show off the new paint job on a CS300, opps, I mean A220-300.  The event was witnessed by Airbus employees and some specially invited members of the media. 

The A220 family has now been born and marks the end of the Bombardier's new jet commercial aircraft operations, the Canadian company is now just concentrating updating its CRJ series of aircraft. The strategic limited partnership that handed over control of the CSeries to Airbus is made up of 50,01%  Airbus, approximatively 34% by Bombardier and 16% by Investissement Québec. 

airBaltic Orders up to 60 Bombardier CS300 Aircraft

Great news for Bombardier Commercial Aircraft today as they and Air Baltic announced that the parties have executed a firm purchase agreement for the sale and purchase of 30 CS300 aircraft with options and purchase rights for an additional 30 aircraft of the same type.

Based on the list price of the CS300 aircraft, the firm order is valued at approximately US$ 2.9 billion. This amount would increase to nearly US$5.9 billion should all 15 options and 15 purchase rights be exercised.

“As the C Series aircraft program continues to gain market acceptance, this significant reorder from our CS300 launch operator is a strong testimony to the aircraft’s exceptional in-service performance,”said Fred Cromer, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “Furthermore, we are proud that the CS300 has helped airBaltic maintain its position as one of the world’s most punctual airlines. The C Series aircraft is at the forefront of the small single-aisle market, and airBaltic played a key role in demonstrating its value. In the last 18 months, we have witnessed airBaltic’s growing leadership in the market, and we wish the airline further success with its expanded CS300 fleet.”

The C Series firm order book to over 400 aircraft

With this order, airBaltic becomes the largest European C Series customer and the second largest customer worldwide with 50 aircraft on firm order. The airline’s new business plan relies on significant expansion of routes from all three Baltic countries – Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

Gogo's 2Ku Inflight Connectivity Solution Selected by Air Canada for its Bombardier C-Series Aircraft

Gogo, the leading global provider of broadband connectivity products and services for aviation, announced this week its joining with Air Canada to provide its 2Ku in-flight connectivity solution on the airlines new Bombardier CS300 aircraft.  The technology will be installed as a line-fit option at Bombardier.

"Air Canada was the first in Canada to deploy the service on their entire mainline fleet of aircraft. They have been at the forefront of technology adoption and we are excited to deploy 2Ku on additional aircraft," said Oakleigh Thorne, Gogo's president and CEO.  "We also are excited to work with Bombardier to have this technology installed at the factory."

CS300 to Brussels for airBaltic and will be off to Almaty in April

AirBaltic is expanding its CSeries CS300 route network and today marked the first CS300 service between Riga and Brussels and the low-cost friendly airline celebrated the occasion with sweet little treats!

To learn more about the airBaltic Cseries 300  

The route network for the airline and its super efficient CSeries aircraft further expands in April as the carrier launches a new summer seasonal route between Riga and Almaty in Kazakhstan.  The service starts on 29th April 2018 and gives many travel options for travellers from the Baltics and Kazakhstan to airBaltic's growing network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and the Middle East.

Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic: “We are now the first Northern European airline to launch direct flights to Almaty, which is a vibrant city in the heart of Kazakhstan. Riga – Almaty will be the second longest flight on our network. We are delighted to offer our European passengers a new and exciting destination in CIS as well to improve connectivity between the Baltics, Europe and Scandinavia for travellers from Kazakhstan.”

airBaltic will fly from Riga to Almaty 3 times a week on the Bombardier CS300 aircraft which takes approximately 5 hours and 15 minutes. The carrier tells us that fares start at just 159 EUR one way, including airport fees and transaction costs.

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