Latvian airline airBaltic has announced its plan to build a new aircraft hangar at Riga Airport to maintain its Airbus fleet. The project will allow airBaltic to lower its maintenance costs once the construction is finalized in 2023.

Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “The new hangar has been in our plans for years, as part of our future expansion. By the time the new hangar will be complete, we will be on our growth path again ensuring the crucial connectivity between the Baltics and the rest of world with almost twice as many Airbus A220-300 aircraft as we have today.”

“Since 2019, we have been performing all of the maintenance on the aircraft ourselves, and our development with bigger fleet will require an aircraft hangar of a suitable size.”

“As the Airbus A220 customer base is growing, we will also be offering heavy maintenance to customers worldwide. It will be one of the largest and most modern aircraft hangars in the region.”

Laila Odiņa, Chairwoman of the Board at the Riga Airport: “Construction of the new airBaltic aircraft maintenance hangar at Riga Airport will consolidate the airport’s positions as the main base of the national airline airBaltic, providing and increasing the range and amount of aviation and non-aviation services provided by the airport, promoting the airport’s development and strengthening its leading role in the Baltic Sea region.”

Currently, the airBaltic fleet is composed of 25 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, and the carrier is certified to provide a full-scale EASA Part-145 Line Maintenance and Base Maintenance for Airbus A220-300 aircraft. airBaltic will possibly start offering maintenance services to other airlines operating the same type of airplanes.