Latvian airline airBaltic welcomed its 29th Airbus A220-300 jet, registered as YL-ABC, in Riga on Aug. 22. This is the fourth of seven planned Airbus A220-300 aircraft deliveries for airBaltic in 2021. This aircraft is a part of the 50 Airbus A220-300 that airBaltic has ordered. In addition, airBaltic holds 30 options and purchase rights for the same aircraft type.
Since May 2020, airBaltic operates all its flights with a single aircraft type – Airbus A220-300, thus minimizing the complexity and benefiting from the additional efficiency provided by the aircraft.
According to a news release from airBaltic, the Airbus A220-300 has performed beyond the company’s expectations, delivering better overall performance, fuel efficiency and convenience for both passengers and the staff. This aircraft 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 Airbus A220-300 has a high-quality air filtering system equipped with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) type filter that provides the best level of filtration currently available for recirculated cabin air from the very beginning of boarding, during entire flight and until all passengers have left the aircraft. The quality of cabin air is carefully controlled and is recirculated with ventilation rates that provide a total change of air 20-30 times per hour.
In addition, the new aircraft is also considerably quieter – with a four times smaller noise footprint. Moreover, the news release states at the moment it is the greenest commercial aircraft in the world, as it is the first aircraft to have a transparent declaration of the lifecycle environmental impact, helping to reduce CO2 and NOX emissions by 20 percent and 50 percent respectively.
