The Latvian airline airBaltic will increase the capacity and improve its operations on the Prague route by introducing larger aircraft Airbus A220-300 and a more convenient flight schedule with up to 11 weekly rotations.
Starting from April 2, airBaltic introduces the new, more spacious aircraft Airbus A220-300 on certain flights to and from Prague. So far, all flights on this route were operated on Bombardier Q400 NextGen aircraft. This will offer more travel comfort for passengers as well as increase the seating capacity, which will also grow due to the increased number of rotations up to 11 weekly. In total, for this summer airBaltic plans to boost the seating capacity by 39% on Prague route, wheras the year-round capacity will grow by 25% comparing to last year. Additionally, three main airBaltic ticket categories will be offered – Basic, Premium and Business.
Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “To support the stable growth, which we observe year by year on Prague route, we decided to change the aircraft type to Airbus A220-300 on some flights. Along with increased seating capacity, it will let more and more people enjoy the excellent flying experience on the new aircraft starting from spring 2019. Already every second airBaltic passenger travels on our brand new Airbus A220-300 aircraft.”
airBaltic is the launch operator of the state-of-art Airbus A220-300 aircraft (former Bombardier CS300) which the airline has been operating in daily services since 2016. So far, airBaltic has received 16 of its Airbus A220-300 orders, and another six new aircraft will join this year.
The Airbus A220-300 offers an excellent flying experience with such benefits for passengers as wider seats, larger windows, more hand luggage space in the cabin, improved lavatories and much more. The new aircraft is also considerably quieter – with a four times smaller noise footprint. Moreover, today it is the greenest commercial aircraft in the world, as it is the first aircraft to have a transparent declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, helping to reduce CO2 and NOX emissions by 20% and 50% respectively. Additionally, the fuel economy has reached 22%. Notably, Airbus A220-300 provides very high utilisation rates. Our Airbus A220-300 aircraft have flown up to 18 block hours per day.
The number of flights performed to and from Prague in 2018 increased by 11% whereas passengers carried by airBaltic on Prague route increased by 9%. Many of passengers had chosen Prague as transfer airport. airBaltic operates Prague route from January 2013.