newstodate.aero

Sep 13, 2022 (newstodate): If measured by the increase of total number of employees and aircraft in the fleet, Latvia's airBaltic is an undisputed success story.
   airBaltic is thus today announcing that the number of employees at the company has exceeded 2,000, reaching an all-time high since the founding of the airline in 1995.  
   The newest member of the airBaltic team will be working in Customer Relations team at the airline’s headquarters in Riga.
   Only in February 2022, the carrier employed 1,366 staff including 200 pilots and 342 cabin crew members, announcing the hiring of additionally 120 pilots and 200 cabin crew this summer.
   On the fleet side, the airline is now awaiting the forthcoming delivery of a further two Airbus A220-300 aircraft, bringing the fleet to 38 units of the total of 40 before the end of this year, as part of airBaltic's order for 50 Airbus A220-300; in addition, airBaltic holds 30 options and purchase rights.
   Undaunted by the fact that the market for hi-yield business air traffic is dwindling after the Covid-19 disruption to the industry, forcing the carrier to deploy its growing fleet of Airbus A220-300 to serving primarily low-yield leisure traffic, airBaltic is now even airing visions of adding new long-range aircraft to the fleet.
   This summer, the airline's CEO revealed dreams of entering the transatlantic market with direct flights to the USA with new larger aircraft such as the Airbus A321XLR aircraft.
   -We are considering the acquisition of the Airbus A321XLR aircraft, although we also show interest in other smaller long-range aircraft on the market. The XLR program should be launched in 2025, which seems to be the right time to bring the Airbus A321XLR to Latvia, Mr Gauss told Simple Flying on the sidelines of the Farnborough Air Show.
   So, staff and fleet are expanding, with visions of further growth into new markets.
   airBaltic is, however, as always tight-lipped about its basic economic performance.
   In H1/22, the airline did indeed see passenger volumes up by one mio, compared to H1/2021, while still below H1/2018 volumes. And while revenues increased three-fold, y-o-y, in Jan-June 2022, net loss during the period dropped only by some two mio euros from 61.5 mio euro in H1/2021.
   Due to the closure of Russian airspace depriving airBaltic of its profitable Russian/Belarus transfer traffic and the effects from the Covid-19 that has brought down the earlier profitable volume of hi-yield business pax, airBaltic is now primarily offering a growing volume of flights to leisure destinations serving low-yield  passengers, as well as reining in on its former expansion of flights in the neighboring Baltic markets.
   But staff and fleet are indeed growing in volumes.