S7 Airlines, one of Russia's leading domestic carriers, today announced an order for a total of 75 CFM56 engines to power new Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft scheduled for delivery beginning in 2009. The order is valued at $510 million over the life of the product, including spare engines.
CFM56 engines are produced by CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between Snecma (Safran Group) and General Electric Company and the world's leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines.
S7 Airlines is scheduled to begin taking delivery of 25 CFM56-5B-powered Airbus A320 family aircraft in 2009. In 2010, the airline will begin taking delivery of 10 CFM56-7B-powered Boeing 737-800 aircraft for operation within S7 Charter, which will begin operations that year.
"The extensive market acceptance of the CFM56 product family, coupled with its impressive reliability, fuel efficiency, and low maintenance costs helped make our decision an easy one," said Vyacheslav Filev, CEO of S7 Airlines.
S7 is one of the Top 50 domestic airlines in the world and is ranked second among Russian carriers based on key performance indicators. In 2006 the airline provided more than 40,000 flights and carried 4,900,000 passengers and more than 28,000 tonnes of cargo and post.
"It is gratifying to know that the significant investment we continue to make in our products is having a positive impact on our customers' profitability," said Eric Bachelet, president and CEO of CFM. "S7 airlines is a long-time CFM customer and we are delighted by their decision to make us such an integral part of their operations for many years to come."
All of S7 Airlines CFM56 engines will be in the new Tech Insertion configuration, which will provide longer time on wing through additional exhaust gas temperature margin; lower maintenance costs; enhanced durability; and reduce fuel consumption.