Air Baltic CEO Martin Gauss says there is a now a sufficient supply of Pratt & Whitney PW1500G spare engines as the airline continues to have to replace powerplants on wing earlier than planned.

Air Baltic, launch customer of the Bombardier CS300, took delivery of the eighth aircraft late last week. It has an order for 12 more aircraft, which will be delivered between now and the end of 2019, and is looking at buying more. However, entry into service has been less than smooth because of reliability issues affecting the engine, forcing the airline to replace the powerplants early. The problems were initially compounded by the lack of spare engines as Pratt struggled to ramp up production fast enough. At least that problem as now been addressed, although Gauss still expects the replacements to continue for some time.

Air Baltic took one of its CS300s to the Singapore Airshow. Bombardier will also use the aircraft for a demo tour in Asia that will include stops in Manila, Philippines, and Bangkok.

The airline is looking at buying 14 more CS300s that it wants to use to replace its Boeing 737 Classics and Bombardier Q400 fleet. However, the decision has been delayed, as the sale of the airline to a new investor is taking longer than expected.