airBaltic eyes Western Europe bases in ambitious growth plan

[fjencl]

Any ideas where the Bases will be ????

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/284502/airbaltic-eyes-western-europe-bases-in-ambitious-growth-plan/

[Hotel Tango]

All the usual positive PR yukspeak, but time will tell. My experience is that, with a few notable exceptions of course, "ambitious" growth = belly up in two to three years. I wish them all the best, I really do, but I have niggling reservations.

[WHBM]

Brussels would be a good start. Lufthansa rebadging Brussels Airlines (a thinly-disguised Sabena) as its own subsidiary Eurowings has apparently gone down like a lead balloon with many of the Belgian regular fliers and media. Call it Belgium International or similar and they would be quite welcomed.

[rmac2]

Bratislava

[FarewellFire]

Lately they've been talking about a base somewhere in the Nordics as this is their "home field". And by Nordics they mean either Denmark, Norway, Sweden or Finland. Traditionally they´ve been flying domestically in Finland so they have experience from doing that.

[oceancrosser]

All the usual positive PR yukspeak, but time will tell. My experience is that, with a few notable exceptions of course, "ambitious" growth = belly up in two to three years. I wish them all the best, I really do, but I have niggling reservations.

This was my first thought as well..

[denominator]

Lately they've been talking about a base somewhere in the Nordics as this is their "home field". And by Nordics they mean either Denmark, Norway, Sweden or Finland. Traditionally they´ve been flying domestically in Finland so they have experience from doing that.
Imo the first bases of BT outside of the baltics are gonna be in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany. In first instance, I expect CPH or/and HAM, later maybe the ones like MMX, GTH or even HEL. Maybe they also consider BER once it's in operational use

[N707ZS]

They should try the new Teesside a great place to make a connection to.

[EI-BUD]

I believe they said their new bases would be selected from current points on their current route map. I'd narrow that to countries closest to Latvia...

[bmaviscount]

I loved their themed liveries based on their composition states done earlier this year

I thought they must be a fab innovative airline but when you read the Skytrax reviews.....

[BA318]

I loved their themed liveries based on their composition states done earlier this year

I thought they must be a fab innovative airline but when you read the Skytrax reviews.....

Skytrax means nothing. Most people comment only if it goes wrong.

[VickersVicount]

Sounds like they've ordered too many A220s and are being forced into looking where they can possibly put them....

[davidjohnson6]

They've ordered 50 new A220s (20 delivered, 30 more to come) and an additional 30 options

Latvia has about 1.9m people. Add Estonia and Lithuania and you have 6 million people, but Tallinn and Vilnius have plenty of service from AirBaltic's competitors. VickersViscount is right - very dubious that AirBaltic needs 50 new A220s, never mind 80 A220s

[PDXCWL45]

Sounds like they've ordered too many A220s and are being forced into looking where they can possibly put them....
Many of them will replace the other types in their fleet including the 737s and Dash 8s.

[FarewellFire]

Sounds like they've ordered too many A220s and are being forced into looking where they can possibly put them....

I don´t think that they´ve suddenly realised this, they are doing this fully knowing what they are up against. They are most likely thinking that expand rapidly or die trying is their best option, especially given that all of their national competition (In Lithuania and Estonia) has gone belly up. Now, is this the right way to do it and will it work. That I leave for smarter people than myself to figure out.

[EI-BUD]

AirBaltic could very well get into ACMI flying, that would give fruitful work to the order of aircraft