airBaltic Airbus A220-300 Flight Review: Tallinn To Vilnius

With only one hour in the air, you wouldn’t think there would be much to say when reviewing airBaltic’s Airbus A220-300 service from Tallinn, Estonia to Vilnius, Lithuania. However, there were indeed a few key takeaways for travelers who may eventually fly with the airline, particularly on this route.

Flight booking and background

Before reviewing my experience on October 6th, I wanted to cover some of my experience booking flights with the airline. Scroll further down to get to the actual review of the flight experience.

My outbound trip from Vilnius to Tallinn (flight BT905) was booked using airBaltic Club points, which required purchasing an e-voucher to redeem. This covered half of the journey, with me paying cash for the Tallinn-Vilnius portion of the trip (flight BT906).

Photo: airBaltic

Booking the flight on September 26th for travel on October 6th, the one-way flight cost about €116 per person. This consisted of €62 for the airfare, with the remainder being taxes, a fuel surcharge, and a ticketing service fee. At the time of publication, €1 is equivalent to US$1.07.

A constantly disrupted service?

It’s interesting to note that even before this round-trip experience between Vilnius and Tallinn, I had already had a negative experience with the exact same service. It was back in December 2022 that I had this same itinerary booked for a much shorter trip. As my wife and I were about to leave for the airport, we received a notification that our flight had been canceled. The next available flight offered to us would take place later the next day. With this particular trip being only two-and-a-half days, we opted to take a much longer overnight bus to arrive at our destination earlier, in hopes of recovering from this disruption.

Fast-forwarding back to October 2023, the outbound Vilnius-Tallinn portion of our trip was delayed by about an hour. Then, five days later, when we were ready to return to Vilnius, our flight was again delayed by about an hour.

Photo: Chris Loh | Simple Flying

Scrolling through the flight history on FlightRadar24.com, my canceled December 2022 flight is nowhere to be found. However, it does appear that airBaltic has had some bad weeks when its BT905/906 is quite often delayed. The reason for my recent delays seems to stem from some sort of disruption at Berlin airport with flight BT822, as this same aircraft then performs subsequent flights.

Scrolling through the recent history for BT822, it’s clear that this flight has some punctuality issues! And so, with the aircraft scheduled to perform BT822 (Berlin-Tallinn), then BT906 (Tallinn-Vilnius), and then BT905 (Vilnius-Tallinn), the delay ripples through the airline’s schedule, affecting passengers late into the night.

Photo: GCMap.com

The delay of a mere hour may be less of an issue earlier in the day, but when flights are later into the night, the inconvenience can be felt much more. It would be nice if the airline could just dispatch a different aircraft from Tallinn to Vilnius, but as we know, the fleet is already stretched relatively thin and has been like this for about a year. Of course, the fact that these are the aircraft’s last few flights of the day precisely makes it more prone to delays when compared to an airline’s first flights of the day.

Check-in and boarding

Check-in is quick and easy and can actually be done several days in advance. This surprised me as I was quite used to having check-in only become available 24 hours before the flight’s departure.

Upon completing the check-in process, travelers can opt to save a PDF boarding pass directly from the website or have this same file emailed to them. An email will also have JPG files of just the QR code of the boarding pass, as well as “.pkpa” files that will display in apps like iPhone/iOS Apple Wallet. I appreciate the airline providing these various options for displaying the boarding pass since there’s always a chance that one of these file formats won’t display correctly.

Photo: Chris Loh | Simple Flying

Specifically for my October 6th flight, once the aircraft was ready to board, the gate agent called for business class travelers and airline status holders. With no one from either of these groups showing up after a few seconds, it appeared that other travelers just moved forward to get themselves scanned in without being prompted by a call for general boarding. The gate agent just went along with this and began to scan all passengers. Other than this, getting from the gate to our seats was quick and easy.

The seat and cabin experience

Stepping aboard the A220-300, the cabin, and the aircraft’s seat met the expectations set by previous A220 flights with airBaltic. The airline’s white seats and the cabin’s faint-blue lighting are pleasant, while there is sufficient aisle space to walk down at a decent pace.

Photo: Chris Loh | Simple Flying

Though the flight was only about 70% full, the overhead bins are big and spacious and presented no issues in terms of fitting everyone’s carry-on luggage onboard.

When it comes to the seats, airBaltic aircraft aren’t fitted with personal inflight entertainment systems but are instead equipped with two small seatback pockets, an upper slot for the airline’s magazine and safety card, and a tray table. Each seat also has an overhead reading light and an air nozzle. About every two rows, there is a tiny overhead screen that provides passengers with the inflight safety video, flight information, and flight status (via a moving map).

The seat is comfortable, although it lacks any ports for device charging. As someone who is 5’11” (180cm) in height, I found legroom to be more than enough. And finally, the aircraft’s beautiful large windows provide a great view of the world outside.

Inflight service

With the flight being about an hour in duration, there’s not much that can be said about the inflight service. Interaction with flight attendants was limited, but they seemed friendly and courteous throughout the flight. With airBaltic being a hybrid carrier, tickets don’t automatically include snacks or refreshments and are instead available for purchase.

Normally, I would opt to endure the short flight without ordering anything, but knowing that I would be reviewing the service, I wanted to try out the airline’s inflight ordering system. In addition to instructions being listed within the inflight magazine, passengers were informed of this service through a pre-recorded announcement over the PA system.

The instructions and steps were simple and straightforward:

• Connect to the wireless network labeled ABSky using your mobile device
• Go to absky.net
• Order the items you want and confirm your selection by entering your seat number.
• Wait for a flight attendant to come and collect payment.

I tried this out as soon as the network became visible on my phone, and ordered a vegan lasagna – an item that would never be delivered nor even acknowledged by the cabin crew. I wasn’t that heartbroken that I never received my order, but it does reveal an issue with the functionality of the process. Flight attendants were probably too busy to check on this flight, and so if a passenger didn’t speak up and inform them or ask about their order, it could be lost. Thus, if you’re trying out this inflight ordering system for yourself, be sure to notify a cabin crew member if and when an order has been placed.

Conclusion

A delayed flight, messy boarding process, and an unfulfilled inflight snack/meal order made for an overall mediocre (if not poor) experience. I generally like the airline and the inflight experience, but it’s clear from my most recent flight that some things need improvement.

Photo: Chris Loh | Simple Flying

A lot of my experience appears to stem from how the airline has scheduled its aircraft and these late flights. Thus, I feel like an earlier service would probably be better. The only airline alternative to avoiding this late-night direct flight is to fly with airBaltic but make a connection in Riga. At best, this will take as little as two hours and 45 minutes.

Have you flown with airBaltic recently? What was your experience like? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.