Lufthansa To Fly Airbus A220s

Lufthansa will fly the Airbus A220 in the Summer 2025 season to mitigate capacity loss and grow market share.

Cited by aeroroutes.aero, the carrier will once again work with airBaltic, a carrier that heavily relies on the A220 to operate some of its aircraft on a short-term lease.

The airline will primarily focus on using the A220 on service from Munich over a period stretching more than half a year, with the first routes commencing on 30 March 2025 and concluding at the end of October 2025.

As a result, this agreement reached with AirBaltic will be timed accordingly to the peak demand season seen across the Northern Summer schedule which runs during this period.

During the six months, Lufthansa will serve locations such as Amsterdam, Bilbao, Helsinki, Edinburgh, Lyon, Malta, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Copenhagen, and Budapest.

The airline’s ability to fly the A220 isn’t fresh. Lufthansa previously announced an agreement with airBaltic to enhance its relationship as a crucial wet lease provider and acquire a 10% stake in the Latvian company.

In that agreement, published on 29 January 2025, Lufthansa Group stated that their wet lease agreement with airBaltic had been extended three years beyond the summer of 2025.

As part of the agreement, the partnership would build upon the flexibility to see the deployment of 21 additional Airbus A220-300s during the summer season and five during the winter at Lufthansa Group hubs.

Lufthansa’s Order For The A220

While Lufthansa relies on airBaltic and the A220 on a wet lease, the Group has more firm plans for this regional aircraft type produced by Airbus.

In December 2023, Lufthansa announced its shopping spree would continue with the purchase of 40 A220 aircraft from Airbus. The deal focuses on the largest model, the -300.

Lufthansa at the time stated the aircraft would be deployed towards its City Airlines division, which, upon launching, aims to feed traffic across Europe into the mainline brand’s hubs such as Munich and Frankfurt for onward international connectivity options.

Therefore, a regional powerhouse such as the A220 has been deemed suitable to adequately meet European demand and feed passengers back into Germany over an extended period.

The first delivery, however, isn’t in the next few months. A relationship with airBaltic that allows wet-lease capabilities such as what’s being planned for the northern summer schedule in 2025 is essential, especially in such a highly competitive market.