The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has awarded type validation to the Bombardier C Series CS300, the Canadian manufacturer announced Friday. The approval comes less than three months after Transport Canada certified Bombardier’s largest airplane and nine months after the Canadian authority granted certification for the smaller CS100. The CS100 entered service with Swiss International Airlines in mid-July. CS300 launch operator Air Baltic of Latvia plans to take its first C Series jet in the fourth quarter.  

“EASA's approval of our CS300 aircraft, as per schedule, recognizes the significant contribution of our highly skilled engineers and technical experts in the development and testing of the best-in-class C Series aircraft,” said François Caza, Bombardier vice president for product development and chief engineer and head of the company’s design approval organization. “We fully expect that the CS300 aircraft's upcoming delivery and entry-into-service with Air Baltic will be as successful as for the CS100 aircraft with Swiss.”

Late last month Bombardier and Air Baltic began route-proving flights with the second CS300 flight-test vehicle, taking the airplane from the airline’s Riga hub to destinations such Vilnius, Lithuania and Tallinn, Estonia, as well as Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to simulate revenue operations.

Holding an order for 20 CS300s, Air Baltic plans to gradually move to an all-Bombardier fleet, which now includes 12 Q400 turboprops.