Bombardier Commercial Aircraft (www.bombardier.com/en/aerospace/commercial-aircraft.html) has confirmed that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has awarded Type Validation to its CS300 aircraft. This is a requirement for the aircraft to operate in Europe and a precursor to the first delivery to CS300 launch operator Air Baltic of Latvia (scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016). EASA’s validation follows the CS300 aircraft Type Certification awarded by Transport Canada in July.

Fred Cromer, president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, said: “Certifying two clean-sheet aircraft within a nine-month period is a major aviation industry achievement. We owe a great deal of thanks to the hundreds of Bombardier employees and suppliers who have worked so diligently and professionally to design and build the
C Series aircraft — the only single-aisle jet-liners developed for the 100- to 150-seat market segment in close to 30 years.”

Bombardier’s smaller CS100 airliner, which was awarded Type Certification by Transport Canada in December 2015 — plus Type Validations by both EASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration in June 2016 — successfully entered service with launch operator Swiss in July.

Both Air Baltic and Swiss have joined Bombardier’s Smart Parts program for the C Series aircraft; this maximises aircraft utilisation and minimises maintenance costs by providing comprehensive component maintenance, repair and overhaul services, access to strategically located spare-parts exchange pools, and on-site inventories based at the airlines’ hubs. The CS100 and CS300 aircraft have over 99% commonality of parts, as well as the same pilot type rating.