On Wednesday the world's first Bombardier CS300 aircraft arrived in Rīga. It's one of the 20 such aircraft to enter the fleet of airBaltic, Latvia's flag carrier airline, airBaltic told the press.

"We are proud to welcome our very first CS300 aircraft and to be the first airline in the world to take delivery and launch commercial operations of the CS300 – the most innovative and technologically advanced aircraft in the world," said airBaltic head Martin Gauss.

The new aircraft has a total of 145 seats and boasts wider seats, larger windows, more hand luggage space in the cabin, improved lavatories and other features.

According to the airline, the CS300 is also much quieter – with four times smaller noise footprint. It is also the greenest commercial aircraft in the world, as it is the first aircraft to have a transparent declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, helping to reduce CO2 and NOX emissions by 20% and 50% respectively.

airBaltic has orders for 20 CS300 aircraft, which the airline ordered in a deal worth around $1.5 billion.

As previously reported, airBaltic will start Bombardier CS300 commercial operations on December 14, 2016 on its route linking Riga with Amsterdam.

Previously the first fully-operational CS300 planes were expected to arrive during summer.