Air Baltic's growth push left it with 54 A220s and a Chapter 11 filing

Air Baltic is restructuring under Chapter 11 creditor protection, and its fleet will shrink sharply. Under the airline's plans, the fleet falls from 54 aircraft to 36 by the end of 2026. The carrier intends to return 20 surplus aircraft to lessors and renegotiate terms on others.

The Latvian national airline had built a single-type fleet of 54 Airbus A220-300s. No Boeing 737, no Airbus A320, no second regional jet. That uniformity was meant to be a waypoint, not the end state: until not long ago the carrier planned to grow to 100 A220s by 2031. Those plans now look outdated.

Growth had long been central to the strategy, and the airline did expand. Between 2019 and 2025, offered capacity measured in seat-kilometres rose 74 percent, from 7.5 billion to 13.1 billion. Passenger numbers reached 5.2 million in 2025. Load factor improved from 76 percent in 2019 to 80 percent.

That was not enough on its own. Analysis by the aviation consultancy IBA found the extra capacity did not generate sufficient revenue. The consultants do not regard the A220-300 itself as a wrong choice, since its size and range suit the relatively thin routes between the Baltics and the rest of Europe.

The problem was that the market shifted while Air Baltic kept expanding. The war in Ukraine disrupted key traffic flows. The airline took on more debt at high interest rates in 2024, partly to fund further expansion. The calculation did not work out.