Flight review: airBaltic A220-300 business class
Flight# BT682 / BT683
From: Barcelona (BCN)
To: Riga (RIX)
(and back!)
Flight time: 3h 35min
Aircraft: Airbus A220-300
The fights were courtesy of air Baltic
Pre-flight experience
As usual, the passenger experience started by interacting with the airline’s digital channels. In this case the tickets were provided by the airline, so I only had to do the online check-in, which was a really smooth and quick process.
I downloaded the airBaltic app too, but did not really use it at the end, since it seems to be geared towards members of the airline’s loyalty programme (an area, btw, in which airBaltic has some very interesting and innovative projects, including blockchain applications, but this is a topic that requires one or several articles of their own!)
Lounge at Barcelona airport
airBaltic flies from Barcelona’s T2, which is located in the oldest and smaller part of the airport (and physically separated from T1, so making it for practical purposes an “airport” on its own). In fact, while lacking the glitz of the more modern T1, Barcelona’s T2 terminal was, until 2010, the city’s main airport, so it is pretty large and modern too.
As a passenger, flying out of T2 has some advantages, such as smaller crowds and shorter distances from check-in desks to gates, while having as well a decent amount of services, shops and catering options. Also, and unlike T1, this terminal has also a railway station with direct links to the very centre of Barcelona.
airBaltic’s business class lounge at Barcelona airport is the “Sala VIP Canudas”, which it shares with a number of other airlines.
At the time of my visit, mid-morning, it was busy but not crowded. Although the lounge is not very large, it has several differentiated areas, including some that are specifically designed for business travellers that wish to do some work or enjoy some quiet time.
The food and drink selection was rather good and the wifi was working well. The press selection was a bit limited and local, but…who reads paper magazines these days? Walking time from lounge to gate: 2 minutes.
Since I am packing the two legs of the trip in one single flight review (the flight experience was quite consistent on both legs of the trip), I am adding here also my comments about the Riga pre-flight, lounge experience from the return leg of the trip.
Lounge at Riga Airport
The lounge is a very nice, modern space with Nordic type of style (much in line with the rest of the airport).
It is an elongated room running along the length of the terminal, but on an elevated level. It is facing the apron and runways and afford seats are distributed in a way that pretty much everyone has views towards them (although some decor elements block a full view).
There are also charging stations for electronic devices next to the seats, even those that are not next to the walls.
The food selection was not huge, but very adequate and well balanced, with a mix of pastries, sweet and salty food and also a combination of cold appetizers, such as pickles and the like and more substantious meal choices such as meat and potatoes, which were all pretty good and tasty.
There was also a large selection of drinks (including several flavours of the Latvian national liquor, Balzam!), but…the point that really made my day, even if it was a rather simple thing, is the fact there was ice-cream on demand (and the local ice-cream brand turned out to taste great!)
Parallel to the runway facing main part of the lounge there is another inward-facing corridor with work rooms, a children’s playground, toilets and other services.
An additional point is that Riga’s airport is on a human scale, so you are never really far away from the gates!
The flight experience
To my delight, the aircraft for the flight from Barcelona to Riga was none other than the A220-300 decorated with the Latvian flag livery (airBaltic has 3 aircraft in its fleet with a special livery celebrating the flag of each of the 3 Baltic republics: Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania).
The Cabin
Let me start by saying that, in this flight report, I will comment only on airBaltic’s business class cabin (for a review of the A220-300 economy class cabin you can check this other earlier flight review)
airBaltic’s business class cabin is rather small, in fact it is the forward-most two rows of the cabin that get separated from the rest by a set of curtains. To be more accurate, it is two rows and a half total. Two rows on the starboard (right) side and one row on the port (left) one.
So, considering the middle seat is typically left empty, we are talking about 5 business class passengers total. This was, at least, the configuration on the two flights I took with them (I ignore how much flexibility does the airline have to place the curtains further down the cabin, you can see the business/economy class divider in one of the pics below).
When it comes to the seats, there are no big differences with the ones in economy. Same type, same seat pitch (32”).
The main differentiation of airBaltic’s business class comes through other elements, such as onboard meals and service, baggage allowance, ticket flexibility and the aforementioned lounge access, among other benefits.
Next are some more pics to give you an idea of the look and feel of the cabin, which is common throughout the two classes (business and economy class sections): light colours that give it an elegant and contemporary look.
The first two rows face the cabin wall, with the aisle side on the starboard side of the plane enjoying a bit more space since it partly faces the open space that leads to the crew area at the head to the cabin.
The seats are slightly reclinable. Also, and this is not an exclusive business class feature, note also the rather large windows of the A220-300!
Perhaps the only con I found is that there are no in-seat power plugs to recharge electronic devices (as if there was some unwritten rule of the Universe, you tend to find these small things missing only when you truly need them!)
Btw, airBaltic has recently introduced a business class Lite, which includes pretty much the same inflight service levels as the regular business class, but it comes with more restrictions when it comes to the flexibility to make changes.
Food and drink
In my opinion, one of the strong points of the airBaltic business class experience.
In addition to the customary welcome drink, we were served a tasty warm three-course meal on both legs of the trip (which is about the right type of service for this type of stage length).
The food was really nice and the menu well balanced on both legs of the trip. It is not uncommon for me to leave some food items untouched when eating on planes, but not this time. Even if I had already had some appetizers at the lounge, the food was really inviting and tasty!
On both flights it was composed of an appetizer, a main and desert that were all very tasty, plus butter and a choice of warm breads.
There is also quite a good selection of drinks (including the aforementioned Balzam, both on its classic and raspberry versions) and what,in my opinion, was pretty good coffee.
Next is the meal we enjoyed on business class on the Barcelona to Riga leg of the trip:
And here is the meal on the return leg of the trip: different menu (the wine list remained the same, though):
Inflight entertainment & onboard service
Although there is no inflight entertainment system as such, the A220-300 is equipped with small overhead screens which provide flight map info (already a big plus for me) as well as other info about available ancillaries (not so practical for business class passengers that have it covered already) and other commercials.
What airBaltic has is an inflight magazine, and a pretty good one!
At a conversation later with airBaltic’s CEO, Martin Gauss (there will be another separate article about this), he confirmed that they are looking at options to add internet connectivity to the fleet, although this project doesn’t have a specific timeframe yet.
Also worth of note is that the crew were super friendly at all times and, as far as I could see, able to communicate effectively in three languages (English, Latvian and Russian). By the way, anecdotal, but there was a nice detail: when reading the pre-flight announcements, the crew congratulated one of the passengers for his birthday!
Our take
Really nice and smooth experience overall.
In a context of increasingly denued intra-European business class products, airBaltic’s one stands out as delivering good value, getting all the basics right - food and service - at a reasonable price point (tends to be about x3 from the most basic economy class fare, but bear in mind, these can start quite low, so it is not unusual to find business class fares for around €300)
Also, and this is not exclusive of business class, the A220-300 is a modern, quiet aircraft, which airBaltic has chosen to outfit with a rather nice, elegant and airy, cabin interior. Riga airport is also quite comfortable to go through, even if its role as a transit hub has been somehow affected by events further east, it adds to the experience.