LONDON – At the beginning of December 2022, the Latvian national airline airBaltic performed the scheduled A-Check technical maintenance and engine replacement for an Airbus A220-300 aircraft of the French carrier Air Austral.
The work was done by a team of 10 airBaltic technicians, and it was the first time that such maintenance was performed for an aircraft of another airline.
Andris Vaivads, Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at airBaltic said: “Since 2016, when airBaltic began using Airbus A220-300 for its operations, our technicians have performed close to 300 A-Checks and many other maintenance works of different complexity.”
“Years of practice and experience speak for themselves and justifies its objectives, including ability to offer our maintenance services also to other airlines worldwide.”
“We are delighted that Air Austral entrusts its aircraft to our professionals, as the top priority in aviation is safety.”
What is the A-Check?
The A-Check is a complex of tasks, covering general inspections of the interior and the aircraft hull for evidence of problems such as damage, deformation, corrosion, or missing parts.
Additionally, it also includes function checks and servicing of all aircraft systems. The A-Check is performed approximately every 400–850 flight hours, or every 200–300 flights, depending on aircraft type.
Such maintenance is typically done at a hangar and can take a minimum of 10 working hours depending on the services needed.
In 2019 airBaltic became the first airline in the world obtaining a full scope EASA Part-145 Line Maintenance and Base Maintenance capability for Airbus A220-300 type aircraft.
About airBaltic
airBaltic provides flights to more than 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and Tampere, offering connections to a wide range of destinations in the airline’s route network in Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East
Over the last 27 years airBaltic has developed as a strong, profitable and internationally respected airline, which employs more than 2000 employees.
airBaltic is by far the best-known international brand of Latvia and responsible for more than 2.5% of the Latvian GDP. airBaltic operates 38 Airbus A220-300 aircraft.
airBaltic has received numerous international awards for excellence and innovative services. Skytrax has awarded Latvian airline airBaltic a five–star COVID-19 safety rating and the Best Airline in Eastern Europe in 2022.
In addition, the airline is one of the Top twenty airlines for COVID-19 compliance by the safety, product, and COVID-19 rating agency Airlineratings.com.
In 2018 and 2019 airBaltic received the ATW Airline Industry Achievement Award as the Market Leader of the Year.
In addition, in 2019 the carrier received Sector Leadership Award by Airline Business.
airBaltic is a joint stock company that was established in 1995. Its primary shareholder is the Latvian state, which holds 97.96% of the stock, while the rest of the shareholders hold 2.04%.
