Riga. The Latvian airline airBaltic announces that on February 1 it has successfully concluded the redelivery process of its Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop aircraft back to the regional lessor Nordic Aviation Capital. Now, airBaltic operates a fully single-type fleet of 39 Airbus A220-300.
Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic: "The last redelivery flight marks an official end to our previous stage of development. Q400, definitely, was an excellent-performance aircraft, which at the time helped us to get where we are today - flying the most efficient and greenest fleet in Europe."
"Although a smaller plane allows more flexibility occasionally, still a single-type fleet has significant advantages - both economic and technical (maintenance), and also in terms of sustainability and training. We are thankful to Bombardier for service; it was a journey that is recorded in our history. Now we are looking forward and are delighted, how Airbus A220-300 has transformed our airline, becoming one of the core and very valuable assets of the company," Gauss added.
The first Bombardier Q400 NextGen aircraft joined airBaltic back in 2010. Over the years, 12 different Bombardier Q400 NextGen have carried more than 11 million passengers in total and have performed over 222 thousand flights all across the Europe.
airBaltic continues to offer the best connectivity to and from Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius as well as Tampere, connecting them with leading European business centres and transit hubs. A complete schedule of airBaltic flights and tickets are available on the company's homepage at www.airbaltic.com.
For more information, please find the press release and photos attached.
For further information, please contact:
airBaltic Corporate Communication Unit
A/S Air Baltic Corporation
Email: pr@airbaltic.com
airBaltic in brief:
airBaltic (Air Baltic Corporation AS) connects the Baltic region with over 70 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, and the CIS. Over the last 27 years airBaltic has developed as a strong, profitable and internationally respected airline, which employs more than 2 200 employees. airBaltic is by far the best known international brand of Latvia and responsible for more than 2.5% of the Latvian GDP. airBaltic operates 39 Airbus A220-300 aircraft. airBaltic has received numerous international awards for excellence and innovative services. Skytrax has awarded Latvian airline airBaltic a five-star COVID-19 safety rating. In addition, airBaltic is one of the Top twenty airlines for COVID-19 compliance by the safety, product, and COVID-19 rating agency Airlineratings.com. In 2018 and 2019 airBaltic received the ATW Airline Industry Achievement Award as the Market Leader of the Year. In addition, in 2019 airBaltic received Sector Leadership Award by Airline Business. airBaltic is a joint stock company that was established in 1995. Its primary shareholder is the Latvian state, which holds 97.96% of the stock, while the rest of the shareholders hold 2.04%.
Aviation industry indirectly provides close to 30 000 jobs in Latvia, while millions of people transfer through Riga, yet many more arrive to Latvia. Each year foreign tourists spend more than EUR 750 million in Latvia. Find out more: https://blog.airbaltic.com/airbaltic-an-asset-for- the-national-economy-of-latvia/.
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BOMBARDIER INC. 
