Story ID: 5-738DubaiEngineOrders
Engine Manufacturers Reap Windfall from Airline Orders
By: Bill Carey
Caption: 
Word Count: 553
Engine manufacturers reaped the rewards of the airline order bonanza at this year’s Dubai Airshow, led by GE Aviation (Pavilion A9), which logged $26 billion in engine orders and service agreements from Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways.

Collectively, the three Gulf carriers placed orders for 450 new GE9X engines now under development for the new Boeing 777X widebody. GE also received orders for Boeing 787 GEnx engines and 777 GE90 engines.

With Emirates’s commitment for 150 Boeing 777Xs, including 300 GE9X engines valued at $11 billion at list prices, GE Aviation secured its largest-ever engine order from an airline. “The confidence placed by Emirates in GE Aviation is almost overwhelming,” said David Joyce, GE Aviation president and CEO. “Emirates is critical in enabling GE to demonstrate and improve upon its high-thrust engine technologies.”

Emirates also placed an order for 50 additional four-engine Airbus A380 superjumbos, which are powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines. The value of the engine order was not immediately available. Engine Alliance (Stand 1963) is the 50/50 joint venture of GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney.

Rolls-Royce (Stand 1845) won a $5 billion order from Etihad Airways for Trent XWB engines to power Etihad’s 50 newly ordered Airbus A350 XWBs. The order, which includes long-term “TotalCare” support, increases the total number of Etihad A350s on order to 62, all powered by the Trent XWB.

Etihad has also ordered Trent 700 engines to power one Airbus A330 freighter. The airline has 28 A330s in service powered by Trent 700s and 11 in-service A340s powered by Trent 500s.

“This is a significant order for the Trent XWB from a valued customer,” said Tony Wood, Rolls-Royce president for aerospace. “We look forward to developing our relationship further.”

CFM International (Stand 1881), the joint venture of GE Aviation of the U.S. and France’s Snecma, finalized an earlier-announced $4.3 billion order for Leap-1A engines from Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines, to power 100 Airbus A320/A321neos. The Istanbul-based, low cost airline currently operates a fleet of 45 CFM-powered Boeing 737s. Under the terms of a 20-year rate per flight hour (RPFH) agreement, CFM will guarantee maintenance costs on a dollar per engine flight hour basis.

Etihad Airways announced a $2.8 billion order with CFM International for 52 Leap-1A engines to power 26 new Airbus A321neos, scheduled to begin delivery in 2018. The order includes a 15-year RPFH agreement.

CFM recently completed ground testing of the first Leap-1A engine, accumulating 310 hours and more than 400 cycles over five weeks on the test stand. The company said the engine’s next major milestone would be icing tests, planned in 2014. CFM contends the Leap engine will provide 15 percent better fuel consumption and an equivalent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the CFM56-7BE that powers the Boeing 737 NG.

“We are happy to welcome Etihad Airways as a CFM customer,” said Jean-Paul Ebanga, CFM International president and CEO. “We think this engine is going to be the best we’ve ever built, and Etihad Airways will realize the benefits from day one, (with) lower fuel burn, lower noise and emissions.”

Deutsche Lufthansa selected CFM’s CFM56-5B engine to power 30 Airbus A320ceos (current engine option), an agreement valued at $610 million at list prices.