Latvian flag carrier airBaltic will suspend its seasonal summer operations from Riga to Belgrade, Pristina and Skopje, as well as from Vilnius and Tallinn to Dubrovnik due to unexpected delays and extended engine maintenance processes by supplier Pratt & Whitney. A total of nineteen routes are being cut and 4.670 flights cancelled for next summer. Other routes will see frequency cuts. An estimated 67.160 passengers will be affected. Other routes to have been suspended from Riga include Aberdeen, Cluj-Napoca, Yerevan, Gothenburg, Mykonos, Rzeszow and Stavanger. From Vilnius the airline is cancelling flights to Ibiza, Rhodes, Chisinau, Tel Aviv and Valencia, while Hamburg has been cut from Tallinn.
Commenting on the development, airBaltic said, ”Like many other airlines worldwide, airBaltic has been facing external factors beyond its control, including global supply chain issues and maintenance constraints. The airline deeply regrets the disruption caused by these forced cancellations and remains fully committed to supporting affected customers through rebooking options or full refunds as needed. Minimising disruption and maintaining reliable service remain top priorities for the airline. airBaltic continues to work closely with Pratt & Whitney to resolve the maintenance delays and find a sustainable solution”. It added, “Customers whose bookings are affected are advised to check their reservations via the 'Manage My Booking' section on airBaltic.com. From there, they can select alternative airBaltic flights or request a full refund”.
airBaltic had previously described its expansion into the Balkans as “one of the biggest changes to our Riga network since the pandemic. We have started generating completely new traffic flows via Riga by connecting the Baltic and Nordic countries to the Balkan countries and back”. Seasonal summer services to Belgrade were launched in 2023, while flights to Pristina and Skopje were introduced last year. airBaltic had initially planned to maintain all three routes, including its cancelled Dubrovnik services this coming summer. In addition to the suspensions, the airline is also reducing frequencies between Tallinn and Split,
Pretty much they are gone from the region. I guess they cut where they make least money.
ReplyDeleteBEG was not positive for them.
Delete^ they cut routes that were the latest launched. LJU is exception because they get money to fly there. But good thing that out of 19 routes you only concluded in pure joy BEG is not positive for them
DeleteI am from Belgrade and I LOVE when BEG is doing well. You missed the point of my post. I am being realistic and I say what I believe is true. I think they cut routes that are not making a lot of money and I stand by it. This is not an attack on BEG, dont be so defensive, jeez.
DeleteEven in LJU they cut from promised year round to around 9 months per year.
DeleteDon't forget that from BEG they were covering the Nordics and the market is not that big. There is also a lot of competition from BEG from JU, W6 and DY. Also Nordic countries are not doing economically well.
DeleteNordic countries have about 4-5 times higher GDP per capita than our region.
DeleteThey cut many other rooites across Europe. They also cut a bew route RIX - RZE - RIX
DeleteSo what if they have such larger GDP? Despite that their passenger numbers are much smaller because there aren't that many people living there.
DeleteThey were competing for the transfer passengers with bigger players, namely LH and LOT. Not that easy, it seems.
DeleteWe should closely monitor Croatia Airlines PW1500G engines!
DeleteAnd btw despite such massive difference in GDP Wizz Air closed their Riga base.
DeleteThe war in Ukraine has had a huge impact on the economies in the Baltics.
Delete0923, what's your region precisely?
DeleteThe war in Ukraine has impacted almost all economies in Europe especially when you look at inflation. So they don't have an excuse.
DeleteAnon 12:10 Poland
Delete:-))
DeleteAnon 10:07 OU's engines are the latest ones which don't have the problems the older versions do.
DeleteNo problem, as long as they come back next year.
ReplyDeleteI don't see it happening but I hope so.
DeleteSo their only route to balkan remains Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteThey still have Tivat and Split. In LJU they get subsidies.
DeleteI think they also fly to OTP.
DeleteThey still fly to TIA and announced VLO and TLL for this summer last time I checked.
DeleteLju subsidies aren’t that big. Yes you get them but they won’t change pax rates that much. There is not much connection to the nordic countryes and air baltic is serving them well, so it is used by bussines travelers as well…
DeleteYes but I believe there are some obligations around serving the destination when you sign the subsidy agreement no?
DeleteAnd what about wet-lease for Mutti?
ReplyDeleteExactly, they are cutting left and right but they have enough planes to lease to Austrian Airlines from March. Just goes to show that their hub model in Riga is not a lucrative business without the Russian market.
DeleteThis is more profitable for them and it seems LH will enter the ownership as well. Adria did the same - prioritizing LH group wet lease and in case of operational disruptions damaging their own operations.
DeleteAnd how did JP end up in the end?
DeleteAnd we know where JP today is...
DeleteMutti who???
DeleteLufthansa.
DeleteYes, this sounds very similar to what Adria did. They wet leased planes in for their own operations but wet leased out Adria planes to Lufthansa.
DeleteImaginary Mutti, imaginary engine problems, imaginary bancrupcy of OU... lots of imaginary stuff going on here...
DeleteIs it related maybe to the death of Swiss cabin member few days ago on A223?
ReplyDeleteHe died of heart attack.
DeleteMind you, DBV lost 2 destinations with airBaltic but still no catastrophic scenario here.
ReplyDeleteSome people here really...
+1
DeleteI call horsemanure on the official reason. The reason is clearly that they are wet leasing more and more aircraft and can't find cheap Romanian alternatives. You can't lease out 60% of your fleet in the summer and expect not to have an effect on your scheduled services
ReplyDeleteThis is just the beginning of their cuts. There will be another 3 or 4 rounds.
DeleteThis is the only way for them to continue to run their business. Avoid German Labor legislation by being based in Eastern Europe and wet lease planes with cheap crew to LH Group.
DeleteOtherwise it hardly makes any other sense to have a fleet of 48 planes and 40+ orders just for 3 small Baltic countries.
Turning entire fleet into A220 and buying so many of them raised many eye browse. I think air Baltic has got a huge amount of debt.
DeleteSuspending Belgrade , Skopje or Pristina , I can understand that . But suspending Mykonos , Ibiza , Vakencia or Rhodes during the summer season is very odd ! They must have a big issue with those engines .
ReplyDeleteIt's the effect of the economic crisis rocking the Baltic region. Less disposable income, less money to go to Ibiza and so on.
DeleteI am sorry, what economic crisis? If anything, 2024 has seen rise in private consumption. People travel like never before. This whole issue is both related to engine issues by p&w as well as wet-leasing to Lufthana group. It is more profitable for air baltic to wet lease rather then sell tickets but we have to remember the backlash from the LV government and public. They need to play this very carefully but none of this would be an issue if P&W made reliable engines :) . The current early maintenance caused by powder-metal defective components is estimated to take 300+ days. And have to remember all engines are affected, even the newly produced.
DeleteAre you living under a rock? Industrial activity is going down almost everywhere and many companies are shutting down factories across the EU. Didn't you notice Volkswagen shutting down factories and firing thousands of people, Porsche the same, ThyssenKrupp as well and BASF moved a lot of their production to China and the US.
DeleteThis was published by Dutch ING the other day:
The Czech manufacturing PMI dived deeper into contractionary territory in December, setting a downward trend in the conditions of automotive havoc in Europe. The outcome is worse than market participants expected, and brings bad news for output, new orders and workforces
I suggest you familiarize yourself with some air travel statistics for 2024 before mixing up global economy and local shutdown of factories. https://www.oag.com/blog/air-travel-statistics-2024
Delete2023 EU economy stagnated, 2024 got a modest recovery and 2025 will be similar to 2024.
Air travel is in a demand that has never seen before, every airline is fighting to get an extra plane in order to make money. No wonder air baltic is wet leasing their own aircraft because that is where the money is and will be until 2027 or perhaps even further.
Is that why certain markets like the German one are still struggling to reach their 2019 levels? EU as a whole BARELY passed the 2019 levels. I am sorry but it must be nice in La La Land.
DeleteOuch Skopje continuing the bad trend :/
ReplyDeleteWhat bad trend? Skopje has only trended up the past months.
DeleteDidnt it have a passenger drop last few months?
DeleteIt had a small increase in like October and November but another huge decline in coming in December and January.
DeleteUnfortunate but not surprised with A220.
ReplyDeleteCrazy...
DeleteIt's disappointing to see so many routes being cut. The Balkans were a promising market for airBaltic
ReplyDeleteBalkans are Lufthansa Group playground, airBaltic was kicked out because they didn't know how to beat them. Lufthansa is smart to most operate 25 year old and reliable planes.
DeleteSo they got kicked out of Aberdeen and Ibiza because of LH too? Did you read why they are cutting 19 routes?
DeleteThey are lying. Many routes are cut because they decided to lease more planes to Lufthansa Group in stead of keeping them at home and flying from their hubs.
DeletePratt & Whitney strikes again!
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteWhat’s happening with Pratt & Whitney? So many airlines seem to be affected by their maintenance delays. It’s causing chaos for carriers and passengers
DeleteImaginary strikes...
DeleteThese routes had great potential. I hope they reconsider once the maintenance problems are resolved
ReplyDeleteThe Balkans expansion was a bold move, but this retreat suggests it might have been overly ambitious given the current challenges in the aviation sector
Delete4,670 flights canceled and 67,160 passengers affected? That’s a huge disruption.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the number of flights is big, but it's only 14 pax booked per affected flight. Good thing that they decided to take action early so that not more pax would have had the time to book. Not every airline would have been so foresightful.
DeleteSome people in Air Baltic probably didn't have much of a Christmas holiday if they had to replan everything for next year.
Looks like SOF will go on. Drops from 3 to 2 rotations :)
ReplyDelete...for now. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes as well.
DeleteThis is the moment for JU to cover the gap
ReplyDeleteJU is unfortunately busy making their own cuts.
DeleteJU has nothing to do in Riga. No gasto traffic, no transfers after Ukraine war and no economic relationship between Serbia and Baltic region. They even faild in HEL before 2022.
DeleteI agree, I really don't think this is a region that JU needs. And I don't think JU has to run after everyone's left overs.
DeleteairBaltic is overrated.
ReplyDeleteAgree.
DeleteI dont understand why they suspend their routes and wet leasing more then 20 A220 to Lufthansa,Austrian,Swiss .... ? What is the logic of all this
ReplyDeleteBecause their hubs do not generate that much money. so they give their planes for more money to others.
DeleteTheir main business model used to be a cheap hub between Russia and Europe and they have been flirting with bankruptcy for years now.
DeleteThink of the timeline. First they signed the agreement with LH Group. Then the engine issues escalated. If they had known about the engine issues being this big, they never would have put all these flights out for sale. And they might not have signed a wetlease agreement with LH Group quite so big. (Or maybe they would anyway since wetleasing is 'safe' money instead of taking risk with own routes.)
Deletewow real pity :(
ReplyDeleteThey collected money in 3Q24 and 4Q24 by selling early bird tickets for summer 25. In order to do that they had unreasonably low prices for the flights they promoted. Otherwise nobody would buy them that early. Now they cancel these flights and give back money without any interest citing issues with engines that were continueing for years and at the same time they increase flying for LHG. For the airline normally having to pay 14,5% interest for euro secured financing that was certainly a great thing helping them to endure financially beyond 4Q24;)
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLOT will be happy
ReplyDeleteAnd they are growing frequencies next summer at the right time.
DeleteAirBaltic is far from the great and successful business people think it is.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey have great PR and exterior though.
DeleteI guess Ljubljana is performing well for them. Even in december their flights were 80-90% packed
ReplyDeletefares to BEG, SKP and PRN were abnormally expensive for the last two weeks (one way flights to/from SKP were 430€) ...
ReplyDeleteShame
wanted to add that i feared for these routes
DeleteThey probably didn't want to announce this during Xmas and cause stress to the affected passengers at a bad time, but waited until the new year.
DeleteairBaltic is being naughty! This is not ok and I can't support their decision.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean? Should they fly the aircraft with faulty engines? How can this be a question of agreeing or disagreeing?
DeleteThey lease them to others instead of keeping them for their own network, that's why they are naughty
DeleteI think for one what didnt help Air Baltic was the times they flew to Belgrade and out. When I went to the Baltics I looked at Air Baltic and timing just didnt work. I used Lot which just had more sociable times. Flying and landing in the middle of the night just didnt tempt me.
ReplyDeleteTheir BEG flight was packed, each time I’ve flown, and I’ve flown 5 or 6 times last year. And by packed I mean maximum 10/15 % empty seats, and those were early may and late october, in peak season it was full! So, this really has to be an engine maintenance issue or profitability on nearly packed seasonal flights is so bad that leasing their planes made more money for them. Or it’s just some other rando reason that I don’t get, but it makes little sense to close this particular route.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that they cut their network so much that maybe keeping BEG no longer made sense. It's not only that they are cutting these routes, they are also cutting their network by so much. BT overplayed their hand and now they are paying the price for their greed.
DeleteSame for SKP, flown twice in late August and there were barely empty seats. The issues with the P&W 1500G engines is real and cannot be resolved quickly.
DeletePeople's habits to where they want to travel, have probably changed. Why not explore other areas of Europe? You go where the market is.
ReplyDeleteMarket is everywhere. For some people it's freezing, remote wilderness of Island, for some it's packed beach in Greece, for some it's city break in Belgrade. There is no single place where the market is.
Delete^Iceland
DeleteProbably is not a good enough reason for expensive exploring. Certainty is what it takes.
DeleteRiga obviously wasn't attractive tourist destination from the region.
DeleteLet’s faces who would use Riga as hub to connect to Europe from
ReplyDeleteBalkan from my perspetive. You need to fly all up to noth Europe to comnect where? Only have sence if you go in that region.
This is a big blow for connectivity between the Baltics and the Balkans.
ReplyDeleteI thought they were trying to become a bigger player in Europe, but now it seems like they’re scaling down
ReplyDeleteI get that supply chain issues are beyond their control, but 19 routes?
ReplyDeleteDrastic times call for drastic measures.
DeleteI like how for some people here it is not air Baltic's fault but the fault of the airports they are suspending.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, it's Pratt & Whitney's fault.
DeleteThe infamous P&W engine problem. Imaginary...
Delete^ yes sure. Companies are having problems with it but for you it's imaginary. Some people on here....
DeleteCould this be a chance for OU to possibly take this route from DBV? If anyone smart was working in OU they would Look to introduce newer routes instead of more frequency on FRA and MUC
ReplyDelete