The Cathay Pacific group and CFM International have concluded an order for the advanced LEAP-1A engine, to be used to power the airline’s 32 new Airbus A321neo aircraft.
The engine order is valued at nearly US$1 billion at list price, with delivery scheduled from 2020.
The aircraft are intended to be operated by Cathay Dragon, the regional carrier of the Hong Kong-based airline group, to replace and modernize its existing single-aisle fleet of 23 aircraft, comprised of 15 A320s and eight A321s, while supporting the airline’s continued expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
Cathay Pacific has also signed a long-term rate-per-flight-hour maintenance agreement with CFM International, a global supplier of commercial aircraft engines. Under the agreement, CFM will guarantee maintenance costs on a dollar-per-engine-flight-hour basis.
Cathay Pacific director of engineering Neil Glenn said they selected the LEAP-1A engine to power their incoming Airbus A321neo fleet for its reliability, predictability, and efficiency.
President and CEO of CFM International Gaël Méheust said that although Cathay Pacific had used the CFM56-5C engines to power its Airbus A340 aircraft for 20 years before the aircraft’s retirement earlier this year, this is the first time the airline chose CFM engines for single-aisle aircraft.
“The LEAP engine family has had an exceptional entry into commercial service with 18 customers currently operating more than 85 aircraft on four continents. Overall, the fleet has logged nearly 150,000 flight cycles and 300,000 flight hours while maintaining CFM’s industry-leading reliability and the highest utilisation rate in this thrust class,” said Cathay Pacific in a release.
The LEAP is providing operators a 15% improvement in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions compared to today’s best CFM56 engine, along with dramatic reductions in engine noise, it added. “All this technology is focused on providing better utilisation, including CFM’s noted reliability out of the box; greater asset availability; enhanced time-on-wing margins to help keep maintenance costs low; and minimised maintenance actions, all supported by sophisticated analytics that enable CFM to provide tailored, predictive maintenance over the life of the product.”
Photo from Cathay Pacific
