WEST CHESTER, Ohio — 10 November 2017 — SilkAir has signed a 15-year Rate Per Flight Hour (RPFH) maintenance agreement with CFM International to support the LEAP-1B engines that will power its new fleet of 37 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The agreement is valued at $1 billion U.S. at list price and includes a total of 80 engines.
SilkAir, which is the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane on 27 September 2017. Operations with the MAX aircraft began on 5 October 2017 with the first flight travelling to Penang, Malaysia. Deliveries of the remaining aircraft are scheduled through 2024.
Rate per Flight Hour agreements are part of CFM’s portfolio of flexible aftermarket support offerings. Under the terms of the agreement, CFM guarantees maintenance costs for all SilkAir’s LEAP-1B engines on a dollar per engine flight hour basis.
Based in Singapore, SilkAir currently operates a fleet of 17 CFM56-7B-powered Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft.
“SilkAir has outstanding reputation for the young age and technical excellence of its fleet,” said Gaël Méheust, president and CEO of CFM International. “We are honored to be an even bigger part of that team and look forward to helping them maintain that reputation.”
About SilkAir
As the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, SilkAir operates the Singapore Airlines Group’s narrowbody fleet and extends the Group network by seeding and developing new, exciting destinations in Asia Pacific.
The airline took to the skies in February 1989 as Tradewinds the Airline, before evolving into SilkAir in 1992. In its early days, the airline catered to customers holidaying in exotic destinations in the region, including Phuket and Tioman. As the carrier developed, regional business destinations such as Phnom Penh, Yangon and Kuala Lumpur were added.
Today, the full-service airline operates about 400 weekly flights to 53 destinations in 16 countries. Recent additions to the network include Colombo (April 2017) and Hiroshima (October 2017). The airline currently has a fleet of 31 aircraft, comprising three Airbus A319s, 10 Airbus 320s, 17 Boeing 737-800s and one Boeing 737 MAX 8.
About CFM International
LEAP-1B engines are a product of CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines. The LEAP engine family is the fastest-selling in aviation history with nearly 14,000 orders place through October 2017. For more information concerning CFM, visit us on the Web at www.cfmaeroengines.com or follow us on Twitter @CFM_engines.
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