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airBaltic and the best regional jet in the sky – CS300

airBaltic and the best regional jet in the sky – CS300

Old Apr 4, 2017, 4:04 am
  #1  
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airBaltic and the best regional jet in the sky – CS300

airBaltic and the best regional jet in the sky – CS300


After flying the inaugural commercial C Series 100 flight on Swiss almost a year ago, I felt in love with the C Series. It is undoubtedly the best regional jet in the market, and even surpasses the comfort on Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 family. CRJ-700/900 and even EMB-170/175/190/195 are no comparison. Currently, airBaltic is the only airline operating CS-300 and Swiss won’t take delivery of their first CS300 till later in the year. However, airBaltic only has two (three now) CS-300 and other than flying to Amsterdam and Munich on weekdays, they fly to random European cities during the weekends. I finally settled on London Gatwick as I needed to formalize my registered traveler card anyway. There were less of a chance of a last-minute aircraft change to Boeing 737. I was relieved when I saw YL-CSB on its way to Gatwick that morning on my bus from Heathrow through flightradar24.

Full album link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...airBalticCS300

Booking:


airBaltic is a pretty tech-savvy airline and you can basically do anything through its website. However, I am disappointed that they don’t provide multiple city or open jaw booking options, which is pretty normal these days especially given the number of cities that they flew to. I decided to fly business but if I am in economy, I really like their meal options. You can reserve a three-course meal in advance and on my flight, someone indeed took advantage of it.

Check-in:
airBaltic uses South terminal at Gatwick now and despite the signage at the airport including electronic board telling me that BT uses Aisle ABC, it was apparently wrong. It was not till I walked all the way to the back at the Air Transat counters that their staffs told us to turn back to Aisle D. It was a major failure by Manchester Airport and airBaltic.

As you could tell, the check in counters were not busy at all, despite the flight was 100% full in Y this morning. I was a bit early. The agent was friendly but I found it strange that none of the agents were able to locate any priority tags. One of the agents said that it was automatic, but I did not see any “priority” sign at the tag itself. Fortunately, Tallinn was a very efficient airport and my bag came out shortly after arrival. However, it was not a particularly good impression but these days you can’t expect much at these out stations.



I was given an invitation to the No. 1 Lounge, which was excellent. Just the view over the runway and apron was enough for me. Unfortunately, I did not take many pictures as the lounge was very busy this morning. It seems like that they were doing some construction but I was very impressed with the service of the lounge. The food could always be better but at least they have freshly made bacon rolls unlike BA.




Boarding:



Our inbound arrived late from Riga this morning, and it only touched down at 8:52am. I took my time heading to gate 28, which was all the way at the end of the pier. The FDIS was doing that annoying Changi Airport thing, which was basically inaccurate. Despite saying final call, boarding was not ready when I was there at 9:15am. Since I know the plane arrived late, I was not fooled but it was very annoying if someone actually ran towards the gate. Priority boarding began at 9:27am. There were only two passengers in business and airBaltic blocked 9 seats for us. The rest of the plane was 100% full except exit row, which was paid.







They held off economy boarding a bit, so I took the opportunity took these interior shots. As you could immediately tell, there was no cabin divider of any sort, which was a “miss”. You were already not giving business class passengers extra legroom, and a cabin curtain was the least I asked for. Even Dash 8-Q400 has the cabin divider.

However, this really minor first world problem cannot take away the fact that it is a beautiful aircraft with high ceiling. The five-abreast seating arrangement is comfortable.

Business Class:



Legroom on bulkhead row:



Legroom on other rows:


Ceiling:


Unique television monitors


The friendly F/A immediately offered me a choice of orange juice or water, along with a menu and wine list after I settled in my seat. Since it was Saturday, a copy of Economist was offered in lieu of newspapers.


Boarding continued and every single economy seat was filled. I was impressed.
Door was closed at 9:56am and it was a busy morning here at Gatwick.

British Airways’ Boeing 777 heading to Grenada


Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 747-400 always look good – VROY was heading to Orlando this morning





We took off from R/W8R at 10:20am for our two hours and twenty-two minutes’ flight to Riga.


Gatwick airport





Flight route today took us over Sevenoaks, Southend-on-Sea, and Harwich before reaching 39,000ft, and then passing cities of Den Welder, Dokkum, and Busum, and then climbed up to 40,000ft. Then we passed cities of Bandholm, Borrby, Cirava, Vame, and then into Riga.

Inflight entertainment
There were these small screens throughout the cabin, which basically showed the safety demo and then sky map for the rest of the flight.

Inflight magazine


Very honest statistic about airBaltic’s operation


Breakfast was served next and here was the menu and wine list:





Hot towel





Appetizer
Duck Pate and Fresh Vegetables



Main Course
Omelette with cheese and vegetables



Dessert
Honey roasted granola with dried local berries and yogurt


ABCBM-1

There was no choice of meal but the F/A was flexible about when to offer me the meal. I just chose to eat right after takeoff. I also asked for Coke Zero and it was first time that I got a plastic bottle served to me in business class.


The service was good and the F/A never took away my empty glass before asking if I needed something else. I got a cup of hot tea later in the flight. I love the design of the tea cup!




Seat:


I am not sure what model of seats does airBaltic choose for its C-series, but they are different from Swiss, which is definitely more comfortable. I recall that the Swiss’ seats have coat hook on the side. Unfortunately, these slim seats used by BT are not that well-padded but for two to three hours, they are tolerable. But I really hope that they will have a different type of seats for their medium haul flights to Abu Dhabi. They must have real business class seat, and for coach seats, I think it will be nice to give them an extra inch or two of legroom. Unless they use a real business class seats, I can’t recommend airBaltic for flights longer than three hours even on their newer CS300s. airBaltic supposes to come up with a long-haul version of its CS300 for the flights to Abu Dhabi, and I hope that they will fulfill this promise.



Descent soon began around 2:16pm at Riga’s local time, which is two hours ahead of London.

It was a pretty cloudy and rainy day here in Riga this afternoon.



We landed on R/W18 at 2:42pm but despite the terminal looked pretty empty, except a sole Aeroflot’s Superjet SSJ-100 RA89026 getting ready for its return to Moscow, we taxied all the way to the remote apron, spot 218. I guess since YL-CSB would be resting in Riga for rest of the day, it stayed over here at the remote spot. But it was a good opportunity to take a few shots of the beautiful plane!





Carfield is offline  
Old Apr 4, 2017, 4:06 am
  #2  
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Transit at Riga
Since Latvia and Estonia were both within the Schengen region, I headed straight the passport control in the transit area. It was a very quiet afternoon and I did not spot the sole agent hiding in his booth at the EU passport holder line initially. Thankfully I got his attention soon and the security staffs were friendly as well, as I was the only passenger at this early afternoon hour.

Riga airport was undergoing some construction but I managed to find the sole business class lounge run by Prime Class.



Prime Class Lounge, Riga
It was actually a very nice lounge and the quiet upper level was a nice space to spot planes, despite being a rather slow Saturday afternoon here. The food spread was pretty impressive and there was even a large bowl of hot soup, which was Borscht, as well a warm chicken with pepper sauce dish, along with tortellini and vegetables. There was also the usual cold cut, cheese, snack, and bread plates. It was a nice lounge to relax for a few hours.











Upper level






Around 5pm local time, I began to spot many airBaltic planes coming into Riga, as it was their last bank of the day. airBaltic relies on transit passengers to fill up its planes, and given the load on both my flights in economy, it was at least working.


BT 317 RIX-TLL Lv1850 Arr1940 Dash 8-Q400 YL-BAX

The inbound flight came in early from Copenhagen, and it was parked at spot 109, which was a short walk from gate B9.






My seat assignment was changed from 2A to 1A, as I usually tried to avoid the bulkhead rows on these Dash 8-Q400s.




Galley


Once I was onboard, it was clear that I was the only passenger in business class, and every single seat was filled except the one next to me. Unlike CS300 flights, there is no pre-takeoff beverage but an Economist magazine was handed to me, along with the wine list. There was no printed menu.

Boarding was completed at 6:48pm and we pushed back at 6:54pm.

Two CS-300s


We took off from R/W36 at 6:58pm. Beautiful sunset over the Baltic region.



Flying time was only thirty-seven minutes and we cruised at 23,000ft.

The F/A immediately served me a beverage, which I chose the champagne for this last segment.


Then a cold salmon plate was offered to me, and I decline the roll service, as I was not that hungry.





Please note that there was no hot towel service, which I totally understand given the short flying time and the limitation of the galley space.



Descent soon began at 7:12pm and we landed on Tallinn Lennart Meri International Airprot’s R/W26 at 7:35pm, and parked at gate 9 five minutes later.





Plenty of Nordica’s CRJ-700/900



Tallinn airport is small but quite functional. The design was cute, and baggage delivery time was only eleven minutes.





airBaltic is an interesting airline and definitely the best one in the Baltic region. The branding is excellent and the service honestly is quite good. The meals can use some improvement and its European business class product can actually be modified quite easily on these CS-300s – just an investment of some curtains or dividers will do. For their Abu Dhabi service and future medium haul flights, airBaltic really needs to step up with at least a real recliner seat, or else its Abu Dhabi service will end up just a super low yield route for leisure travelers.

I hope you will enjoy this report! Next part will be on Nordica.

Carfield
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Old Apr 7, 2017, 9:39 am
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Thanks for this report, I will be flying CDG-RIX in May on the CS300, one question for you, was there any sort of cabin bag weight & size check? They seem to advertise the rules quite aggressively on their site, just wondering how it is in practice.

The plane looks really nice for sure though. The fluorescent green takes getting used to
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Old Apr 8, 2017, 9:11 am
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Yes strict cabin baggage check

Yes airBaltic is pretty strict with the carry on situation. Since I only had a backpack and a large suitcase, I did not have any problems especially I had to check my large suitcase anyway.

I witnessed some issues with a passenger in front of me regarding check in bags at London Gatwick. So there is no way to get around it especially airBaltic Y fares are fairly cheap these days.

Carfield
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Old Apr 9, 2017, 12:08 am
  #5  
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Good to see you back in the air, Carfield. I flew Air Baltic's CS300 AMS-RIX last month and thought it was pretty nice. I also lugged my 22" roll-a-bord over from my KLM flight (a Fokker 70 into AMS) and had no issues from the gate agents when I took it onboard with my daypack.

My favorite regional jet remains the BAe-146/Avro85 family. Sadly, they're on their last legs with most carriers these days but I sure had some comfortable flights on those birds.
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Old Apr 9, 2017, 3:09 am
  #6  
TPJ
 
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Originally Posted by Carfield
As you could immediately tell, there was no cabin divider of any sort, which was a “miss”. You were already not giving business class passengers extra legroom, and a cabin curtain was the least I asked for. Even Dash 8-Q400 has the cabin divider.
Huh, fairly ridiculous...

But it is getting more common not to 'invest' in the courtain divider - AB/SNSK and now BT...
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