Also a wet lease this winter: Air Baltic will enter into a permanent extension with Swiss

Switzerland, like most airlines, was surprised by the sharp increase in demand in the summer of 2022 after the end of the epidemic. So I got help the following winter. Not only did it once again rely entirely on its long-term wet-lease partner Helvetic Airways. It also leased up to six Airbus A220 aircraft from Air Baltic with staff.

The Swiss explained at the time that they wanted to contribute to increasing the stability of the flight schedule and increasing security planning for passengers. At the beginning of 2023, the Lufthansa subsidiary announced that AirBaltic would continue flying for it “certainly until the end of the summer schedule” and if necessary “a little more.” This “past” will now turn into many more months.

Across the entire European network

A spokeswoman for the Swiss airline AeroTELEGRAPH confirmed that “four Air Baltic aircraft will be used in the 2023/24 winter flight schedule.” Latvians will use the A220-300 to fly to Alicante, Berlin, Frankfurt, Ljubljana, Munich, Porto, Tirana or Warsaw, for example. So more or less throughout the entire European network.

One of the reasons for the extension is that the Swiss company is also experiencing engine problems on its A320 Neo and A321 Neo aircraft, and has to shut down the planes in the meantime. Therefore, an extension of AirBaltic’s mission until the summer of 2024 would not be surprising.

Helvetic is also in use

Helvetic Airlines also flies extensively to the Swiss again in the winter. The partner uses “eight aircraft on average” in the winter, the spokeswoman said.