newstodate.aero

Jan 15, 2019 (newstodate): In the fleet of the Latvian carrier airBaltic are now 14 Airbus A220-300 aircraft and plans are settled for delivery of a further 36 aircraft. The airline took delivery of the 14th aircraft by year-end 2018, and all 20 deliveries in its initial order will be completed by the end of 2019. Next to follow is then the start of deliveries under a fresh firm purchase agreement signed on May 28, 2018, for another batch of 30 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, together with options for an additional 30 aircraft of the same type. The airline has now revealed to Bloomberg its intentions of deploying the 50 aircraft to expanding its route network out of the three Baltic capital airports, while a decision on the 30 options will be announced by the end of this year. One option would be to set up a subsidiary airline outside the Baltic home turf with these 30 Airbus A220-300 aircraft. This would however require a restructuring of the capital basis with either more investments from the existing partners, or the expansion of the investor circle with new partners, not excluding another airline in a strategic partnership. Today, airBaltic is owned 80 percent by the Latvian state with the Danish investor Lars Thuesen holding the remaining 20 percent since his acquisition in spring 2017 of Aircraft Leasing 1 SIA.