Latvian National airBaltic airline has chosen to purchase new airplanes from the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, so said CEO of airBaltic Martins Gauss during a Press Conference at the Farnborough airport in the UK.

As airBaltic reports, the company has signed a letter of intent with Bombardier Aerospace for the supply of ten CS300 airplanes and purchasing rights for ten more CS300 airplanes.

So far, Gauss could not say when the contract with Bombardier will be signed, but he projected that the first airplane will be delivered in 2015. But ten «c-series» airplanes will be delivered by Bombardier by 2017.

The current producer price of the CS300 order, according to price catalogue, is 764 million dollars. On top of that, if the rights for ten more airplanes are used, the producer price could reach 1.57 billion dollars. Vitolds Jakovlevs – a member of the Board of airBaltic – admits that the price of this deal will be lower. «This deal will be confidential,»- he adds.

Gauss admits that, at first airBaltic will fund the deal by itself, but Jakovlevs noted that funding from banks or leasing companies could be attracted as well.

Gauss also admits that ticket prices could be lowered by introducing new airplanes, but he did not clarify how much.

Bombardier «c-series» airplanes can fit up to 149 seats. Bombardier notes that airplanes of this type allow saving up to 20% of fuel.

As it was previously reported – in the beginning of April, Transport Minister Aivis Ronis met with the Board of Boeing in Chicago, USA. Before then, he also visited France, where he met with the Board of Airbus – these two manufacturers were the main contenders for producing new airplanes for airBaltic.

Ronis previously noted that the decision on the procurement of new airplanes is within the competency of the Board of airBaltic. Nonetheless, it should be financially beneficial and the government does not exclude the possibility to assess the impact of this deal on Latvia’s economy and, especially, on the development of the aviation industry in a broader aspect.

airBaltic services more than 60 different destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From each of these destinations airBaltic offers connecting flights through the North Hub in Riga to its network, which covers Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

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