Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Latvia’s Air Baltic restarted revenue flights with its Bombardier CS300s on Thursday after grounding all seven of its narrowbodies to attend to “technical nuances” involving their Pratt &amp; Whitney PW1500G geared turbofans. It added that it expected to finish inspecting all seven of the airplanes on Thursday and clear them for operation by the end of the day.

 


“Air Baltic is working in close cooperation with aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and engine manufacturer Pratt &amp; Whitney,” said Air Baltic in a statement. “Additional inspections are carried out in order to ensure the safety of the CS300 aircraft as well to perform the necessary upgrades to the aircraft.”

 


Air Baltic did not offer details on the source of the engine concerns, however, noting only that it had expected “additional attention” and reserve aircraft availability as part of the CS300’s introduction strategy.

 


“Similar to other technology sectors...in aviation there are certain technical nuances that are characteristic to new equipment that require additional attention and upgrades during the initial stages of exploitation,” the company added. “[The] CS300 is not an exception and similar to all new aircraft its introduction requires additional attention concerning the harmonization between different manufacturer parts and systems.”

 


Air Baltic added that the “harmonization” has proven successful and that the fleet has registered “very good results,” including fuel efficiency improvements of 21 percent compared with other aircraft in its fleet. Each aircraft spends between 85 and 95 hours in the air every week, the airline said.

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