SWISS will be wet leasing up to 6 Airbus A220-300 aircraft from airBaltic over the winter season to allow Switzerland’s national carrier to provide increased reliability and stability across its typical schedule.
A helping hand
This Friday, SWISS announced that it had agreed to work with Latvian national carrier airBaltic over the winter on wet leasing up to six Airbus A220-300 aircraft.
As a result, airBaltic will be operating flights throughout the SWISS European route network which were initially originally planned for SWISS’s own operation.
SWISS drew up a wet lease deal with airBaltic to help relieve current pressure on its cabin crew and pilots. The airline is also in the midst of tough civil negotiations with its cabin crew and pilot unions.
So with the additional uncertainty of strike action in the air, the carrier seeks to secure the stability of future operations over the remainder of the summer, autumn and especially the winter.
Since this is a wet lease agreement between the two carriers, airBaltic will also be providing the crew and any maintenance required for every flight.
If you have booked a SWISS flight and appear to be queuing up to board an airBaltic livery aircraft – don’t be alarmed, you can expect a normal service.
Tamur Goudarzi Pour is Chief Commercial Officer for the Lufthansa Group airline. He commented on the partnership with airBaltic and why the Riga-based carrier was the ideal choice:
“airBaltic is an ideal wet lease partner for us. Like us, they operate the highly advanced, innovative, and eco-friendly Airbus A220-300. And they have already performed flights for other airlines of the Lufthansa Group this summer with impressive reliability.”
Elsewhere, SWISS already wet leases six aircraft from Helvetic Airways for the entire year. The Swiss regional airline operates a total of 604 weekly flights on behalf of the Star Alliance carrier – 25% of all of SWISS’ flights this August.
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