newstodate.aero

Dec 02, 2022 (newstodate): Latvia's airBaltic has now at long last taken delivery of two more Airbus A220-300 aircraft that have been waiting on the tarmac in Canada since August.
   With these two deliveries on December 2, the carrier's fleet has grown to 38 A220-300 aircraft, and two more will be delivered before year-end if plans hold.
   The first of the two new aircraft took to the air on its maiden flight on August 14, with the second following on August 26, 2022.
   Normally, the final delivery process takes less than one month, but in this case it took almost four months from first flights to arrival at Riga Airport, the reason probably being issues with the sale/lease-back transaction.
    -Aircraft acceptance and finance is a complex process, where multiple parties are involved and which requires aligning and signing a significant number of documents. Once the paperwork is finished, the aircraft delivery is completed, airBaltic's communications officer said in response to newstodate's inquiry, November 9.   
   It now turns out that the two aircraft are part of a new aircraft lease contract with GOAL, German Operating Aircraft Leasing GmbH & Co. KG, comprising a total of three aircraft with the third delivery later in December.
   Most of airBaltic's Airbus A220-300 aircraft are delivered on sale/lease-back contracts with various aircraft lessors including Altavair, Chorus Aviation Capital, Aviation Capital Group and Skytech-AIC, with investors funding the acquisitions.