With only three Bombardier CSeries CS300s flying today not many people have been on board. AirBaltic’s third CS300 joined the fleet just last weekend and it made its first commercial flight from Riga to Hamburg on April 4th as part of the Passenger Experience week series of events in that city. As a guest of Hamburg Aviation and representing Runway Girl Network I was invited out to poke around on board and see what I could see.
I’m a fan and I have been for a while now.
Big windows, wider seats, large overheads and a large rear lav are all part of what I love. That it is exceptionally quiet and more fuel efficient doesn’t hurt, either.
Swiss and AirBaltic are flying the type today. Delta (75) and Air Canada (45) are the largest pending order holders with a combined 120 frames between them and deliveries expected to start in 2018. Until then, head to Europe snag a ride.
Read more:
- Friday Flyday: Taking the CS100 for a spin
- A Few Thoughts on the Bombardier CSeries CS300 First Flight
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@airBaltic @aix_expo Is it in service yet, or just part of the expo?
That is pretty awesome you got invited for the tour. It looks like it will be a nice large regional jet aircraft! What did you like best? Do you think it is worth a trip to Europe to try one out before 2018?
“Regional” is relative, I suppose. It is ~130 seats and has sufficient range such that AirBaltic will be flying Riga-Abu Dhabi soon. Bombardier tested it on a departure from London City Airport flying non-stop to JFK with an on-board configuration of 32 seats, nearly identical to what BA uses for the A318 service today, though that plane has to stop in Ireland en route.
Is it worth going to Europe for a flight? I usually don’t need much in the way of motivation to travel more so I’m probably not a great judge of such.
And I love a quiet plane with large windows. That makes me all sorts of happy.
Thanks for the report Seth. I made a comment on the DLD episode 135 page about the c-series and just a few days later you publish this article. I live near Canada, and I am hoping (although as unrealistic as it may seem) that AC uses this to upgauge and retire of some of those awfully small planes that have really long flight times. For example, PDX to YYZ has a nonstop on an E190 (and is listed as a 5 hr flight). I honestly don’t know if that is the longest flight operated by an E190, but that’s a good question. That’s a long time in a small airplane, despite the E190 being pretty good overall. The C-series just seems a like a great plane, full stop. I’d think a nice PDX to YVR flight on a c-series would be fun too (currently only serviced by Q400 on either AS or AC, and yeah i know its a 1 hour flight, but still…). Love the website! You should charge for this content (patreon). Thanks for everything.
I expect you’ll love the next episode of DLD then; we talk about a few of the topics you asked about. 🙂