According to reports, the Latvian airline airBaltic is considering ordering 30 extra Airbus A220 aircraft.
The Riga Airport (RIX)-based airline has almost all of the 50 aircraft of the type from its previous purchase, and the current order would allow it to exercise its contractual options for 30 more aircraft, according to Martin Gauss, chairman and chief executive officer.
According to Reuters, who spoke with Gauss during the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Istanbul, Turkey, Gauss also mentioned that the airline might be interested in converting some of its A220-300 options to the A220-500.
A spokeswoman for Airbus previously told that while increasing production rates for the A220-100 and A220-300 are now a top priority, the “A220 stretch is a matter of when and not if, though we are unable to give a timeline.”
The airline wants problems with the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G to be resolved first, therefore Gauss ruled out the prospect that the order would be placed at the Paris Air Show later this month in a separate interview with Air Insight at the IATA AGM.
“The engines are ok, but P&W is falling short of MRO capacity. Actually, the delays have become bigger again in the past three months,” Gauss told Air Insight.
