SWISS Ends Its airBaltic Wet Lease and Will Fly More of Its Own Flights From Summer 2027

SWISS will stop using airBaltic aircraft and crews on its flights when the 2026/27 winter timetable ends in late March 2027. The Lufthansa Group airline announced the decision on October 27, 2026, as part of a plan to fly more of its schedule itself.

In summer 2027, SWISS expects about 18 aircraft to fly for it under wet-lease deals with partner airlines, down from 26 today. Going forward it will work primarily with Swiss carrier Helvetic Airways.

What SWISS announced

“We have set ourselves the goal of operating more flights ourselves again,” SWISS CEO Jens Fehlinger said in the company’s release. He said up to eight fewer wet-leased aircraft will fly for SWISS next summer than in the previous year.

SWISS said the partners had kept its schedule running through Pratt & Whitney engine shortages, extra training requirements and a shortage of cockpit crew. It says engine availability and pilot staffing are now improving, so it will again fly more Airbus A320 family jets with its own crews.

The airline credited airBaltic with reliable support during a difficult period, while Fehlinger called Helvetic a “strong, proven and long-term strategic partner.” It did not say how many aircraft each partner will fly, or whether any routes or timings change.

How many airBaltic jets fly for SWISS

The SWISS release does not break down its 26 leased aircraft by partner. Swissinfo reported that five airBaltic Airbus A220-300s were flying for SWISS in early March 2026.

The French site Air Journal put airBaltic’s share of SWISS’s summer 2026 program higher, at 11 aircraft. The two counts come from different points in the year.

Helvetic is the partner SWISS is keeping. The Zurich-based airline says up to 15 of its Embraer jets operate for SWISS under a long-term agreement, and it ordered three more E195-E2s in November 2025, due between late 2026 and spring 2027.

What a wet lease means for passengers

In a wet lease, one airline rents another’s aircraft together with its pilots, cabin crew and maintenance. The flight is still sold and numbered as a SWISS flight, so passengers book SWISS but may board a plane in another airline’s livery.

That arrangement drew complaints. Keystone-SDA, in a report carried by blue News, said customers criticized airBaltic crews’ German skills and a missing “Swiss feel.”

SWISS defended the deals as the price of keeping its network intact. CFO Dennis Weber said in summer 2026 that a wet lease is “the lesser of two evils compared to not flying at all,” because the airline needs short-haul flights to fill its long-haul jets at its Zurich Airport hub.

Another Lufthansa Group customer gone for airBaltic

The decision lands while airBaltic is restructuring under Chapter 11, which it filed in a New York court on September 14, 2026. In October it said it plans to cut up to 700 jobs out of about 3,000, and to focus more on long-term partnerships with other airlines.

Lufthansa owns 10% of the Latvian carrier, and Air Journal described the group as airBaltic’s largest wet-lease customer. It also reported that Brussels Airlines was ending a deal for four airBaltic A220-300s, with the aircraft due back at the end of October 2026.

Losing SWISS as well removes another source of income just as airBaltic shrinks its fleet. At the time of writing, airBaltic had not posted a statement on the SWISS decision in its newsroom.