Latvian flag provider airBaltic is a captivating airline. airBaltic has a large fleet of Airbus A220-300s (the airline hopes to have 100 of those by 2030), with a big community to and from Northern Europe, specifically to Riga, Latvia (RIX), Tallinn, Estonia (TLL), and Vilnius, Lithuania (VNO).
The airline has simply made an attention-grabbing request with the US Division of Transportation (DOT), and I’m undecided what precisely to make of it (because of @IshrionA for flagging this).
airBaltic requests to function United States flights
airBaltic has filed with the US DOT, requesting permission to function flights to the US with its personal plane. Right here’s the request:
In July 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration positioned Latvia in Class 1 below its IASA security program, which now permits AIR BALTIC and different carriers from Latvia to function to the US with their very own plane. Given this improvement, AIR BALTIC requests that the Division amend its overseas air provider allow to take away the codeshare solely limitation and in addition grant it exemption authority to function with its personal plane the open skies authority set forth in its present overseas air provider allow.
As you may see, beforehand airBaltic’s permission to fly to the US was restricted to codeshare flights, whereby the airline might place its “code” on one other airline flying between the international locations. Now the airline needs permission to function these flights with its personal plane.
The submitting doesn’t go into additional element on precisely which routes the airline needs to function, or which plane it can use. Be mindful Latvia is a part of the Open Skies settlement, which means that the airline can freely add routes between any taking part international locations, assuming it has the above permission.
How might airBaltic fly to the US?
airBaltic’s fleet consists completely of Airbus A220s. Whereas these planes are extremely extremely succesful, they don’t have the vary to fly nonstop from Latvia to the US. With that in thoughts, a couple of ideas:
- If airBaltic have been to launch flights to the US with its personal present plane, a cease could be required alongside the best way, in someplace like Iceland
- airBaltic is a really effectively run and disciplined airline, so this isn’t some government-owned self-importance challenge that can gentle cash on fireplace for status
- The timing right here is attention-grabbing, as a result of in late 2023, airBaltic and Delta launched a partnership, although it has restricted implications as of now, since Delta doesn’t fly to any of airBaltic’s hubs
- Is it attainable that airBaltic plans on selecting up one or two huge physique plane with the intention to fly to the US? I’ve to imagine that’s not the case, as a result of the airline is disciplined, and I can’t think about that will make cash on a year-round foundation
- In November 2023, airBaltic’s CEO was quoted as saying “there will probably be no direct flights to the US but,” and that “it needs to be an economically logical step”
I’m actually undecided what precisely to make of this. In search of regulatory approval for one thing doesn’t essentially imply an airline has instant plans to do one thing. On the similar time, airways don’t usually search regulatory approval for one thing that’s not lifelike below present circumstances.
So for now we’ll mark this as “growing.” I’ll say that I discover it unlikely that airBaltic would launch transatlantic flights with its present fleet, however I could possibly be fallacious.
Backside line
airBaltic has filed with the US Division of Transportation, requesting permission to fly to the US with its personal plane. The catch is that airBaltic solely has A220s, and people can’t fly nonstop from Northern Europe to the US.
I’m curious to see what unfolds right here, as a result of this needs to be one of many extra uncommon requests we’ve seen from a authentic airline…
What do you assume airBaltic’s plans are for the US?
