Northwest Airlines has placed a $230 million order for CFM56-5A3 engines to power 20 new Airbus Industrie A320 aircraft scheduled for delivery in 1998 and 1999.
CFM56 engines are produced by CFM International (CFMI), a 50/50 joint company of Snecma (Safran Group) of France and General Electric of the United States.
This order will bring the total Northwest A320 fleet to 70 aircraft, making the airline the largest customer for CFM56-powered A320 aircraft.
"Northwest was our first North American A320 customer," said Jim Raphael, sales director for CFMI. "Today, it operates the largest CFM56-powered A320 fleet in the world. This kind of confidence doesn't come easy, and we're gratified that Northwest sees the CFM56-5 as such an integral part of its future fleet."
The CFM56-5A, rated at 26,500 pounds takeoff thrust for Northwest's A320s, has logged more than seven million flight hours since it entered service in 1988. The engine has maintained some of the best reliability rates in its thrust class and equals or exceeds the performance of much more mature engines in terms of its in-flight shutdown rate (.006), shop visit rate (.063), and dispatch reliability rate (99.93).