Air Baltic's third Bombardier CS300 has made a surprise visit to Hamburg during the Aircraft Interiors Expo.
Gerhard Ramcke, chief pilot for the Latvian airline's CSeries fleet, tells FlightGlobal that the twinjet was flown to Hamburg for its first revenue service after being ferried from Bombardier's assembly line in Montreal to Riga on 31 March.
The aircraft (registration YL-CSC) made its first flight after assembly in mid-March, and has now logged about 30h.
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Ramcke says Air Baltic – the CS300's launch operator and the second airline to receive the CSeries after Swiss – will receive five more CS300s this year: two in May, one in June, and another pair in July. The next eight CS300s are to be delivered in 2018, and four are to join the fleet in 2019 – completing the airline's order for 20 CS300s.
However, when Air Baltic introduced its first CS300 in December 2016, chief executive Martin Gauss said the airline was evaluating potential further orders for the CSeries or Q400 turboprops.
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Air Baltic picked the CS300 to replace its Boeing 737 Classic fleet.
Ramcke says the airline has operated its first two CS300s with relatively low utilisation rates of two to three flights a day in order to get to know the aircraft and be able to investigate any potential irregularities. But with the third delivery and the beginning of the summer schedule, utilisation will rise to four to five flights a day, he says.
The flight attendants on today's flight to Hamburg say that the CS300 is more comfortable to work on than Air Baltic's 737s and Q400s, as the interior aisle is wider and the larger overhead bins noticeably improve space for cabin luggage. Both the forward and aft galley on Air Baltic's CS300 are equipped with water taps and sinks – only provided in one galley on the airline's 737s. The Q400 fleet has no such facilities, so bottled water is used to prepare hot drinks.
Air Baltic usually deploys Q400s on its flights to Hamburg.
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Source: Flight Daily News
