7 engines to power 10 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The aircraft are scheduled for delivery between early 2006 and mid-2007. The airline currently operates a fleet of 28 CFM56-7-powered 737-800s.
The CFM56-7B is produced by CFM International. CFM is a 50/50 joint company of Snecma Moteurs (Safran Group) and General Electric Company and the world's leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines. In 2004, CFM received orders for more than 680 engines and delivered 720 engines. There are more than 14,500 CFM56 engines in commercial and military service with more than 400 customers worldwide.
The CFM56-7 is rated from 18,500 to 27,300 pounds thrust for the Boeing 737-600/-700/ -800/-900 series of commercial aircraft. The worldwide CFM56-7 fleet has accumulated more than 35 million engine flight hours and 17 million flight cycles and maintains industry-leading reliability. The aircraft's 99.95 percent dispatch reliability rate translates to less than one departure per 2,000 flights being delayed 15 minutes or more or canceled. In addition, the engine has an in-flight shutdown rate of 0.002, translating to one in-flight shutdown every 500,000 flight hours. To put this number into perspective, these airplanes accumulate an average of about 3,000 hours each year. A rate of 0.002 means that a CFM56-7-powered 737 would experience an in-flight shutdown every 165 years.