Latvia-October 11, Latvian flag carrier, AirBaltic had restarted flights of CSeries CS300 jets after temporarily grounded its entire fleet of Bombardier CSeries to attend technical check on the engines including their Pratt and Whitney PW1500G geared turbofans.
“Air Baltic is working in close cooperation with aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and engine manufacturer Pratt &Whitney,” said Air Baltic in a statement. “Additional inspections are carried out in order to ensure the safety of the CS300 aircraft as well to perform the necessary upgrades to the aircraft.”
“Similar to other technology sectors…in aviation there are certain technical nuances that are characteristic to new equipment that requires additional attention and upgrades during the initial stages of exploitation,” the company added.
“The CS300 is not an exception and similar to all new aircraft its introduction requires additional attention concerning the harmonization between different manufacturer parts and systems.”
Air Baltic added that the harmonization has proven successful including fuel efficiency improvements of 21 percent compared to other aircraft in its fleet and the fleet has registered “very good results”. Each aircraft spends between 85 and 95 hours in the air every week.
Air Baltic was the first airline to operate the larger variant of Bombardier’s CSeries jets.