After completely exiting Boeing 737 and De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprop flying following its March 17 Covid closure, Air Baltic has turned attention to maximizing the efficiency of its Airbus A220 fleet as it adds one airplane per month since resuming operations two months later. During a Monday FIA Connect Spotlight Session, Air Baltic president and CEO Martin Gauss said he and his team adapt schedules every Wednesday to account for a Covid-related need for flexibility, given changes in the virus situation in various EU countries and government opening of new destinations. Still, he noted, the company continues to concentrate on short-haul routes, many within a Baltic state “bubble” created at the start of service resumption.
Now flying 11 of its 22 A220-300s, Air Baltic restarted with its strongest routes, but quickly found it needed to adapt to support utilization rates. The airline still cannot serve destinations such as Stockholm, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, although tentative plans now call for resumption of service to the Russian capital on August 1. This week it plans to resume service to Keflavik, Nice, and Madrid.
“Technically we fly 11 aircraft but we use 16,” explained Gauss. “The reason is we have a minimum turnaround time of 60 minutes because of the disinfection [of the cabin]. But yes, utilization is nowhere where it should be. That is one of the prices you have to pay for the kind of operation we do.”
The company, said Gauss, has removed 40 percent of its capacity for the year, but he noted that removing the turboprops in favor of the A220s—effectively lowering frequency and increasing capacity on the same number of routes—has proved an advantage.
“We think we’ll be back in 2022,” said Gauss. “As we don’t really fly long-haul…we have an advantage because that part of the business is really not working at the moment. Short-haul within Europe and also rebuilding the hub function in Riga is working for us at the moment. Nine weeks in we are satisfied and a little bit above what we wanted to achieve. I think toward the end of the year we will also see business travel come back if we don’t have several countries going back into a more severe Covid situation.”