airBaltic expands wet lease customer base with Air Serbia deal
airBaltic has been operating flights on behalf of Lufthansa Group airlines.
airBaltic and Air Serbia have announced that for the next two years, the Latvian airline will wet lease up to four of its Airbus A220-300 aircraft to the Serbian carrier, expanding the pair’s partnership.
On October 17, 2025, Air Serbia said that starting November 1, airBaltic will wet lease its A220-300s to the Serbian airline. Initially, Air Serbia will use two A220-300s, while during the upcoming summer 2026 season, which begins on March 29, 2026, the wet lease agreement will encompass up to four aircraft. The term of the initial agreement is two years.
Air Serbia and airBaltic have been codeshare partners on their respective flight networks.
Jiří Marek, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Air Serbia, said that its passengers will now have the opportunity to fly “comfortably and quickly to their destinations aboard modern” A220-300s. “This type of aircraft will be an important model and reference point for future decisions regarding the composition of Air Serbia’s fleet, all in line with the continued development and implementation of the company’s strategic plans,” Marek added, which could allude to a potential aircraft order in the near future.
According to planespotters.net, Air Serbia has two Embraer E195, nine Airbus A319ceo, and three A320ceos as its smaller jets, as well as 10 ATR 72-600 turboprops, to operate its short-to-medium-haul flights.
Rytis Beresnevicius
The Serbian carrier has wet leased aircraft from other airlines. Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that in September 2025, for example, Bulgaria Air and GetJet Airlines had been scheduled to operate up to 72 and 39 weekly departures from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) on behalf of Air Serbia, respectively.
While flights operated by these two carriers have also been scheduled in October, by November, only Bulgaria Air-operated departures remain. So far, Air Serbia has not filed the routes that airBaltic would fly from BEG.
In October, GetJet Airlines’ route network from BEG spanned 17 destinations, all operated by A320ceo aircraft. The destinations are displayed below:
However, Air Serbia’s perhaps most infamous wet lease partner was Marathon Airlines. On February 18, 2024, one of the Greek carrier’s E195, registered as OY-GDC, was involved in an incident as it was departing BEG on Air Serbia flight JU 324.
In its preliminary report, the Center for the Investigation of Accidents in Transport of the Republic of Serbia (Центар за истраживање несрећа у саобраћају, CINS) detailed that, before the flight, the flight crew had prepared to depart from another intersection, D6, yet ended up being on intersection D5.
After being informed by air traffic control (ATC) about their position at D5 and a warning that the remaining runway length would not be enough to safely depart BEG, the pilots recalculated the aircraft’s takeoff performance, concluding that they would be able to take off from BEG safely.
The remaining runway length was not enough, and the E195 hit the runway’s approach lights, as well as the support structure of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) antenna.
CINS’ preliminary report concluded that, for the time being, the probable cause of the incident was the flight crew’s inadequate performance calculations and the decision to take off without utilizing the full runway.
Two days after the incident, Air Serbia issued a statement saying that “regardless of the results of the [CINS'] investigation,” its wet lease agreement with Marathon Airlines would end on February 21, 2024.
Nevertheless, airBaltic, which has steadily increased its wet lease operations over the past few years as it sought additional revenue streams, will benefit from “efficient fleet use and reliable operations for both airlines,” according to Thomas Ramdahl, the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of airBaltic.
“The ACMI [aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance – ed. note] model enables airBaltic to provide flexible capacity to partner airlines across Europe while maintaining consistent product quality and operational reliability with our modern Airbus A220-300 fleet and experienced crews.”
In H1 2025, airBaltic’s total revenue was €349.6 million ($408.2 million), while its ACMI-out operations’ revenue was €71.8 million ($83.8 million), or 20.5% of its total revenue.
Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that in October, airBaltic operated 810 weekly departures on behalf of four Lufthansa Group airlines: Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS). Lufthansa Group also purchased a 10% stake in the Latvian carrier in January 2025.
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