Bombardier announced here yesterday that it has completed nearly 100 percent of the flight testing needed for certification of the CSeries CS100. Function and reliability (F&R) testing on the first production-configured aircraft began on Saturday. CSeries FTV5, here in Dubai in the colors of launch customer Swiss, has finished all its flight testing, allowing it to start demonstration flights for prospective new customers.

Separately, the company confirmed that Riga, Latvia-based Air Baltic has agreed to become the first operator of the larger CS300, planning to launch service in the second half of 2016. Air Baltic holds a firm order for 13 CS300s and retains options on another seven.

CS100 F&R flights began with a four-leg mission beginning and ending in Mirabel, Quebec, and including stops in Moncton, New Brunswick; Halifax Nova Scotia and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Meant to simulate typical flight routings and operational procedures, the F&R flights will take the CS100 to some 15 city pairs in Canada and 20 in the U.S., then to Europe for more testing.

Calling the Dubai show “a very important event in a very important region” yesterday at a press briefing at the CSeries Pavilion (at Chalet A1-A3), Bombardier Commercial Aircraft CEO Fred Cromer reported that the CS100’s better-than-expected hot-and-high performance give it the equivalent of another 300 miles worth of range on a typical flight between Riyadh and Addis Ababa. Customers in the region include Gulf Air, Iraqi Airways and startup carrier SaudiGulf Airlines. Cromer declined to convey expected delivery dates for any of Bombardier’s Middle East customers, nor would he offer a more specific date for delivery of the first CS100 to launch customer Swiss International Airlines. Bombardier has said only that it will deliver the airplane during the first half of next year.

Having flown more than 1,000 flight test missions, Bombardier continues to target the end of this year for the airplane’s certification.