airBaltic"s Airbus A220 Is Heading On Tour To South East Asia

The aircraft will visit countries including Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia as part of its tour of the region.


Photo: Limare | Shutterstock

Airbus is taking an A220 on a demo tour around South East Asia to showcase the aircraft to potential airline customers. The Airbus A220-300 is registered as YL-ABO and belongs to airBaltic, sporting the Latvian carrier's livery.

With no airlines in the South East Asia region currently operating the A220, the aircraft manufacturer will be keen to build up interest in the type and hopefully secure some orders as a result. The only Asian carrier to fly the A220 is Korean Air, which boasts 10 of the aircraft in its fleet.

YL-ABO set off on its journey from Riga on May 20th, and according to FlightRadar24.com, has so far visited the UAE, Thailand, and Malaysia. Since the start of its tour, the aircraft has flown the following sectors:

Date	Route	Departure	Arrival	Flight time
May 20th	Riga (RIX) to Sharjah (SHJ)	23:42	07:42 (+1 day)	7 hrs 0 mins
May 21st	Sharjah (SHJ) to Bangkok (DMK)	08:53	18:09	6 hrs 15 mins
May 22nd	Bangkok (DMK) to Kuching (KCH)	09:15	12:56	2 hrs 41 mins
May 22nd	Kuching (KCH) to Langkawi (LGK)	14:25	17:01	2 hrs 35 mins

The aircraft is also scheduled to visit Indonesia later in its tour. This unusual routing is a far cry from the aircraft's usual services. In the days prior to starting the tour, YL-ABO had operated airBaltic's regular passenger services between Riga and Vienna (VIE), Frankfurt (FRA), and Tallinn (TLL).

The latest in a series of tours

Airbus took to Twitter to share its excitement about the tour, which is the latest in a series of promotional tours carried out with one of airBaltic's A220s:

Previous promotional tours have seen the aircraft touch down in a host of countries, ranging from New Zealand and Vanuatu to Angola and Nepal.

airBaltic and the Airbus A220

YL-ABO is one of the airline's newest A220s, and was delivered to airBaltic on April 28th, 2023. Data from ch-aviation.com shows that the carrier currently has 41 Airbus A220-300s in its fleet, and is the second-largest operator of the type worldwide, after Delta Air Lines, with 60 aircraft, and ahead of Air Canada, with 33 aircraft. Each of airBaltic's A220s carries up to 148 passengers in an all-economy configuration.

However, the airline has recently encountered problems with its Airbus A220s due to supply chain issues with the aircraft's engine manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney. airBaltic recently confirmed that it does not expect the backlog to be cleared until 2025. In the meantime, the carrier has had to wet lease aircraft in order to fulfill its growing flying schedule.