airBaltic has announced that it will retire their remaining Boeing 737 aircraft in the autumn of 2019, one year earlier than the original plan. The Latvian airline aims to benefit from the additional efficiency of the Airbus A220-300, which eventually will be the only jet aircraft in the fleet.

Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic: “Airbus A220-300 is the aircraft of our future and, by phasing out the Boeing 737, we will have the youngest jet fleet in Europe. The introduction of the Airbus A220-300 has been very successful and provided the additional efficiency any airline is seeking in the highly competitive aviation market. Thanks to the good overall performance we took a decision to introduce a single type fleet of up to 80 (50 firm order and 30 options) Airbus A220-300 aircraft by 2022.”

The current 8 B737s (6 B737-300s and 2 B737-500s) will be phased out by airBaltic in 2022. At the end of last year, 3 B737s had already been phased out from the airBaltic fleet. The B737s that the airline now flies with have an average age of 20.4 years.

The Airbus A220-300 has performed beyond the airline’s expectations, delivering better overall performance, fuel efficiency and convenience for both passengers and staff. airBaltic received its first A220 – back then known as Bombardier CS300 – more than 2 years ago. airBaltic was the first airline in the world to fly the CS300/A220-300.

airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius to its network spanning Europe and the Middle East. In the summer of 2019, airBaltic will introduce five new destinations from Riga to Dublin, Stuttgart and Lviv as well as Kos and Menorca.

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(Head image: Jerry Taha)