airBaltic (BT, Riga) Chief Executive Officer Martin Gauss has confirmed the Latvian carrier will replace its fleet of twelve Dash 8-400s with additional CSeries jets.

Earlier, Gauss had alluded to studying both the C-Series from Bombardier Aerospace as well as the E-Jet-E2 from rival Embraer for its renewal needs.

However, in an interview with Bloomberg, the CEO said an order with the Canadian's for at least fourteen A220-300s would be placed by the end of 2018. Deliveries will likely only start in 2020.

“We have made the strategic decision to go to an all-jet fleet,” he said. “It’s not clear when we will place the order, but we will replace our turboprops with C Series.”

The order will also include options allowing the carrier to convert some slots to smaller A220-100s, although this will be done based on demand.

According to the ch-aviation route database, airBaltic deploys its twelve Q400s on flights covering Scandinavia, the Baltics, Germany, and Eastern and Central Europe. The twelve aircraft's leases with Nordic Aviation Capital are scheduled to run out in 2021 and 2022. Aside from the turboprops, it also operates seven CS300s with a further thirteen due for delivery. The added CSeries will also be used to replace airBaltic's fleet of six B737-300s and five B737-500s.