airBaltic will start its two-year wet-lease settlement with Air Serbia this Saturday, initially offering two Airbus A220-300 plane together with crew, upkeep and insurance coverage. The variety of plane will improve to 4 from the summer time of 2026. Andrejs Martinovs, Chairman of airBaltic’s Supervisory Board, revealed the service beat fourteen different European firms competing for the contract. The airline additionally performed down considerations raised by Latvia’s State Safety Service over Air Serbia’s operations to Russia, stressing that its plane is not going to be deployed on these routes. Between November and the tip of March, airBaltic’s A220-300s are scheduled to function a complete of 848 Air Serbia operations (or 424 flights in every course).
airBaltic will make its debut on behalf of Air Serbia on November 1, working the morning service between Belgrade and Zurich. In an uncommon twist, each Air Serbia and Swiss can be utilising wet-leased airBaltic plane on the identical route this winter. Thus far, airBaltic’s A220-300s have been scheduled on choose Air Serbia flights to nineteen locations from Belgrade through the winter season. These embody: Malaga, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Athens, Barcelona (one flight), Paris, Dusseldorf, Istanbul, Larnaca, London, Lisbon, Madrid, Malta, Milan, Porto, Oslo, Thessaloniki (one flight), Valencia and Zurich. The plane can be used most ceaselessly on providers to Paris (107 flights in complete), adopted by Amsterdam (71), London (38), Oslo (35) and Larnaca (34).
The A220 provide a step-change in cabin profile versus the outgoing GetJet A320s that served on behalf of Air Serbia over the previous years, whereas additionally letting the Serbian service collect real-world information on prices and passenger suggestions earlier than any future narrow-body refresh. The Serbian service has explicitly positioned the deal as each a capability bridge and a stay A220 analysis platform. Talking to EX-YU Aviation Information in June, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, famous, “We’re actively exploring long-term fleet growth. Nevertheless, it is a complicated course of, not solely attributable to restricted availability in present order books, but in addition as a result of most of the plane sorts we might logically contemplate nonetheless face ongoing engine reliability points. We’re decided to not repeat errors made elsewhere within the trade. On the similar time, the secondary market is changing into extra lively, which aligns with our present fleet technique. Whereas we’re definitely analyzing future fleet renewal, I wouldn’t anticipate any agency choices earlier than 2027. And even then, deliveries will rely on availability”.
