The Latvian airline airBaltic has concluded the redelivery process of
its Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop aircraft back to the
regional lessor Nordic Aviation Capital.
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.
Now, airBaltic operates a fully single-type fleet
of 39 Airbus A220-300 – formerly the Bombardier CS300.
“The
last redelivery flight marks an official end to our previous stage
of development. The Q400 was definitely 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,” said
Martin Gauss, President and CEO of airBaltic. “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 their 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.”
airBaltic provides connectivity
to and from Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius as well as Tampere, connecting
those cities with leading European business centres and transit hubs.