ZHUHAI, CHINA November 4, 2002 Over the past six years, Shannon Engine Support (SES) has experienced phenomenal growth in the spare engine leasing market and, today, is the industry's leading lessor of CFM56 spare engines.
SES, based in Shannon, Ireland, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CFM International (CFM). CFM is a 50/50 joint company between Snecma Moteurs (Safran Group) of France and General Electric of the United States and produces the world's best-selling commercial engine product line, the CFM56 family.
"The advantage SES offers that other companies don't is guaranteed availability of CFM56 engine for short-term lease," said Roger Welaratne, managing director of SES. "With pools of engines worldwide, we have the flexibility to provide engines in a ready-to-install configuration within 24 hours." (note: we deliver within 24hrs in our contracts)
SES has a portfolio of 140 CFM56 engines, including the CFM56-3 engine for the Boeing 737-300/-400/-500, the CFM56-5A and CFM56-5B for the Airbus Industrie A320 family, the CFM56-5C for the Airbus A340, and the CFM56-7 for the 737-600/700/-800/-900. The company supports 40 customers and a fleet of more than 360 aircraft worldwide.
SES was originally formed in 1988 as a joint venture between aircraft leasing company Guinness-Peat Aviation (GPA) and CFM. At the time it served as a workable solution to a potentially big problem. GPA had a large fleet of CFM56-powered 737s and it had targeted small and start-up airlines as its market. However, these airlines were not in a position to purchase their own support equipment. Since the CFM56-3 had only been in service for about four years, no other third-party support was available. Consequently, airlines were looking at older 737s because a support structure was already in place. SES would fill that void. The company would manage a lease pool for member airlines that guaranteed spare engine availability.
In 1996, CFM purchased GPA's shares of the company, making SES a wholly-owned subsidiary. SES has grown from a three-person company with a fleet of 13 CFM56 engines to now employ more than 20 people, including three in China. Europe and China are the company's two largest markets, with the remaining customers in North America, Asia and Africa. As the CFM56 in-service fleet continues to grow (more than 13,000 have been delivered to date), SES continues to adapt the size and mix of it s engine pool to ensure it has the right resources at the right time, guaranteed.