Jazeera Airways has placed an order for CFM56-5B engines to power four brand new Airbus A320 aircraft scheduled to be delivered to the airline between 2012 and 2014. The engine order is valued at $80 million U.S. at list price.
Jazeera Airways, which began operations in October 2005, was the first carrier in the Middle East to operate this state-of-the-art engine. Today, Jazeera Airways is an award-winning airline based in Kuwait and serves the Middle East region with a fleet of 15 aircraft, including the four future deliveries. The new aircraft will be used as part of the company's fleet modernization program.
"We have had great success with the CFM56-5B engines and formed an outstanding working relationship with CFM," said Marwan Boodai, Chairman of Jazeera Airways Group. "The performance and reliability advantages that the engine provides have helped us establish and maintain our high efficiency and reliability reputation."
All of Jazeera Airways' new engines will be the CFM56-5B Performance Improvement Package (PIP) configuration. The -5B PIP completed extensive ground testing and more than 26 hours of flight testing on the A320. The engine, which will become the new production standard, is on schedule for certification and entry into service by the end of 2011.
The improvements, which provide a 0.5% improvement in fuel burn, include hardware changes to the core, including new high-pressure turbine blade, as well as manufacturing changes the fan and compressor blades and vanes to improve performance retention. The engine will maintain the same noise signature as the current production engine. These engines also meet current International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Committee of Aviation Environmental Protection standards (CAEP /6) requirements.
CFM56-5B engines are a product of CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between Snecma (Safran group) and GE. CFM, the world's leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines, has delivered more than 22,200 engines to date. The CFM56-5B engine powers every model of the Airbus A320 family and has been chosen to power nearly 60 percent of all A320 aircraft in service or on order.
About Jazeera Airways:
Established in 2005, Jazeera Airways Group is a Kuwait Stock Exchange-listed company with over 12,000 shareholders. The company has 11 fully-owned Airbus A320s in operation, distributed between its airline business, Jazeera Airways (6 aircraft), and its fully-owned leasing business, Sahaab Aircraft Leasing (5 aircraft). Sahaab has assets placed with Virgin America, Sri Lanka Airlines, and Jazeera Airways.
In 2010 the airline carried 1.3 million passengers in total, or 15% of Kuwait International Airport passengers, on a 14,156 flights across its network that includes high-demand business, leisure, family, and weekend destinations such as, Dubai, Bahrain, Beirut, Alexandria, Amman, Damascus, Istanbul, Sharm El Sheikh, Doha, Assiut, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Luxor, Mashhad and Sohaj, Jeddah and Riyadh. The airline has flown over 7.5 million passengers since establishment in October 2005.
About CFM
CFM is the preferred supplier of commercial aircraft engines with a product line that serves as the industry benchmark for reliability and cost of ownership. More than 22,200 CFM56 engines have been delivered since the company was formed in 1974 to more than 500 operators around the globe.