In September, the Lufthansa
Group announced that it would be expanding its Airbus A220 wet-lease agreement with airBaltic
, that sees the Riga-based carrier offering its aircraft across the airline group’s network.

Lufthansa already offers airBaltic-operated flights on its services leaving Munich during the summer seasons, while partner airline SWISS
has been doing the same year-round from its Zurich hub.

Austrian Airlines
will begin flights with airBaltic A220s in March. We take a look at the destinations on offer.

Summer 2025’s expanded airBaltic-Lufthansa Group agreement

The contract as announced at the start of September will see “up to 21” airBaltic Airbus A220-300
aircraft being deployed on behalf of the Lufthansa Group, representing just under half of the carrier’s total current fleet of 49 planes.

airBaltic Airbus A220-300 parked at Vilnius Airport VNO shutterstock_2214759747

Photo: Renatas Repcinskas | Shutterstock

Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines are also going to benefit from the airBaltic collaboration as of this summer season. Austrian Airlines has already begun scheduling the Airbus A220 on routes across its network, according to Cirium data. For its part, the Belgian flag carrier has yet to pencil in its plan.

Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic said the following in September:

“Throughout the recent years, airBaltic has earned a reputation as one of the leading premium wet lease providers in Europe. The wet lease business has become a crucial element of the airBaltic growth strategy, complementing our scheduled operations from our existing bases. The efficient single-type fleet of modern Airbus A220-300s and our high-quality onboard service have been key to this success.”

This partnership is an endorsement of our wet lease capabilities and reliability from a well-respected international brand like Lufthansa Group. We are looking forward to a successful collaboration over the coming years.”

Brussels Airlines has already said that it expects to introduce four airBaltic planes, while Austrian will take on three according to online schedules.

Austrian Airlines’ A220 destinations

Flights will all operate from Austrian’s Vienna hub, to key destinations across its network. The A220s will enter commercial service for the carrier on March 30, 2025, operating initially to:

  • Amsterdam (AMS; The Netherlands)
  • Stockholm Arlanda (ARN; Sweden)
  • Berlin (BER; Germany)
  • Nice (NCE; France)
  • Thessaloniki (SKG; Greece)
  • Zurich (ZRH; Switzerland)

Other destinations will be introduced over the course of the summer season, as listed below.

Destination

Airport code

Country

Inaugural month

Seville

SVQ

Spain

April

Frankfurt

FRA

Germany

June

Rome

FCO

Italy

June

Düsseldorf

DUS

Germany

June

July will be the busiest month for Austrian’s new member of the fleet. The A220s will offer 496 flights for the airline, providing just over 73,000 seats. In all, over the summer period, 3321 flights will be operated by airBaltic for the Lufthansa Group member. The agreement will come to a close on October 25.

map-1

Photo: Great Circle Mapper

Amsterdam is the top destination for the Austrian A220s, with up to four daily operations.

The plan for the rest of the group

Brussels Airlines

Brussels Airlines has not yet provided a specific plan for its A220s. However, it had said at a press conference in September that it would be deploying them on flights typically reserved for its smaller Airbus A319s.

“So it’s more for the city routes where demand in summer sometimes is lower, and where these smaller aircraft really make sense for us.”

The four 148-seater jets will also enable additional expansion at the Belgian airline.

“So having four more aircraft is a good opportunity for us to really look into the network. But also there, most of the capacity will go into flying more frequencies on destinations that we have, because there’s a number of destinations that we feel we underserved by not flying dense enough network.”

The carrier hopes to “go beyond the four aircraft in the future” given that the airBaltic-Lufthansa wet-lease agreement also covers the 2026 and 2027 summer seasons.

SWISS

SWISS is by far the most significant wet leaser of the airBaltic A220s. It began using the planes in winter 2022/2023 which covered six planes from airBaltic. It is worth noting that SWISS also operates its own fleet of A220s but has been suffering from engine issues.

SWISS Airbus A220 Taking Off

Photo: SWISS

Local media have also noted lower operating costs as one of the reasons for which SWISS has maintained its airBaltic wet-lease agreement for so long.

It is assumed that Lufthansa will take on a few airBaltic planes as it did during the recent summer period, although the number of examples is not confirmed, nor are the routes on which they will operate.

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