Lufthansa Group has signed a strategic three-year wet-lease agreement with airBaltic (BT, Riga), covering up to twenty-one A220-300s during summer seasons and up to five aircraft during winter.
The German holding said the partnership, beginning in the Summer 2025 season, will allow it to better respond to changing demand with more seasonal routes.
"With the additional capacities of airBaltic, destinations in high demand in the route networks can be served even more flexibly in future. At the same time, this will strengthen the quality of connections to Lufthansa Group's intercontinental services at the group's hubs," it said.
The two companies did not specify where the wet-leased A220s would be placed with Lufthansa Group stating only that they would be based "at various hubs". However, Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) has independently confirmed that four A220-300s will be based out of Brussels National during the Summer 2025 season.
airBaltic recently launched recruitment for new bases at Brussels, Munich, and Vienna airports.
The Latvian flag carrier, which currently operates an in-house fleet of forty-eight A220-300s (with 42 more on firm order from Airbus), is actively pursuing opportunities on the ACMI market alongside its scheduled operations from Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn Lennart Meri. It has been operating for Lufthansa Group since 2019 and currently has five aircraft in service for Eurowings, four for Lufthansa, and eight for Swiss.
Lufthansa Group recently said it was planning to enter into a long-term strategic ACMI partnership with a third-party carrier as a part of its reorganisation and AOC simplification drive.
