Pegasus Airlines seals $4.3 billion engine deal with CFM

By BA Staff

Pegasus Airlines has finalized its order for CFM International’s advanced LEAP-1A engine to power its 100 Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft on order.

The agreement is valued at approximately $4.3 billion U.S. at list price, including a long-term service agreement.

Under the terms of the 20-year Rate per Flight Hour (RPFH) maintenance agreement, CFM will guarantee maintenance costs on a dollar per engine flight hour basis.

The engine selection was announced in July 2013 and the airline is schedule to begin taking delivery of its new aircraft in 2016.

The Istanbul-based low cost airline has been a CFM customer since it began operations in 1990. The airline operates a fleet of 45 CFM-powered Boeing 737 aircraft on scheduled routes to 76 domestic and international destinations throughout Europe, Russia, Central Asia, Caucasus, the Middle East, and Africa.

Sertaç Haybat CEO of Pegasus Airlines said:

“We are pleased to have selected CFM to provide LEAP engines for our new Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft until 2022, in addition to the 20-year maintenance agreement. This will enable us to keep what is arguably the most significant cost for airlines — engine maintenance costs— in check by making these costs more predictable. With this order, we have now increased our total Airbus fleet investment to $16.3 billion U.S. — $12 billion for 100 new aircraft and $4.3 billion for the engines and long-term service agreement. Based on the delivery schedule for the fleet, our partnership with CFM will continue at least until the year 2042. Together, we are witnessing the signing ceremony for a collaboration that is set to last for another 30 years.”

Pierre Fabre, president & CEO of CFM parent company Snecma (Safran) said:

“This agreement marks an important milestone in our already 20-year relationship with Pegasus. Beyond the quality of the LEAP product comes our unwavering commitment to keep our promises and deliver the kind of performance, reliability, and operating economics Pegasus has come to rely on from CFM.”

The first LEAP-1A engine to test started for the first time on September 4, 2013, two days ahead of the schedule set in early 2010. The engine logged more than 300 hours and 400 cycles before coming off the test stand. The next major event is the icing tests that will take place in 2014. CFM is performing the test early, more than one year ahead of the engine certification timeline, to ensure that any potential issues are identified well in advance.

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Boeing continues to Improve 737 MAX performance

By BA Staff

The Boeing 737 MAX program continues to make steady development progress since reaching Firm Configuration on the 737 MAX 8 in July.

Engineers have completed an assessment of the airplane's performance confirming an additional 1% fuel-efficiency improvement over the 13% already promised to customers.

Keith Leverkuhn, vice president and general manager, 737 MAX program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes said:

"Program and airplane performance just continues to improve. We have been very disciplined in our approach and continue to realize more benefit for our customers as we retire risk on the program and get further into development. This recent fuel-efficiency gain will widen the performance gap in the single-aisle market, reinforcing the 737 MAX's position as the value leader."

The 737 MAX will feature several new systems that will improve the management of maintenance information. For example, some Built-In Test Equipment (BITE) information will be brought into the flight deck. Today, maintenance technicians access this fault data in the forward electronic equipment bay of the airplane. By bringing this data up to the flight deck, maintenance issues can be resolved faster.

The MAX also will include an enhanced onboard network system comprised of a digital flight data acquisition unit (eDFDAU) and network file server (NFS). These systems will provide a centralized data collection system with more storage capacity, doubling the maintenance data available during flight. The system will be capable of connecting the airplane in flight to airplane operations on the ground enabling airlines to better prepare for potential dispatch issues.

Michael Teal, chief project engineer, 737 MAX said:

"We are enhancing the capability of the 737 MAX to meet the future needs of a digital world. Recognizing that the Next-Generation 737 is already the most reliable single-aisle airplane with 99.7 percent of flights departing on time, we are being very deliberate about any changes we make to the airplane systems on the 737 MAX to make the airplane even easier to operate and maintain. Through careful testing and selective application on the Next-Generation 737 before MAX enters service, we can ensure these systems are ready to enhance the management of our customers' fleets." 

Some of these systems such as the eDFDAU and NFS are under development for initial delivery on the Next-Generation 737 prior to the 737 MAX. Many of these systems were tested during the 737 ecoDemonstrator program last year, showing the value they will provide to airlines operating the 737 MAX.

Engineers continue to make progress on the detailed design of the airplane. Recently the team completed the Firm Systems Definition, which defines the hardware locations for the systems on the airplane.

Leverkuhn said:

"Throughout the design process we'll continue to look for opportunities to improve operational performance, schedule and cost for our customers. We are on track for first delivery of the 737 MAX in the third quarter of 2017."

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Video: Changing a Boeing 737 CFM56 engine at Southwest Airlines

by Devesh Agarwal

A CGI rendition of the Southwest Boeing 737 MAX

Without a doubt, an aircraft's engines are one of the most complex parts on an aircraft. After the airframe, the engines are the most expensive item an airline buys, and normally an airline signs separate contracts for the airframe and the engines.

With thousands of rotating parts, and temperatures reaching close of one thousand degrees, engines require regular maintenance. Almost all engine manufacturers like General Electric, Rolls Royce, Pratt and Whitney, CFM, and IAE, offer a concept of 'fixed total cost of operations' wherein the airline pays the engine vendor a fixed cost per hour of operation of the engines and the vendor is responsible for maintaining the engines. This concept is better known as "power by the hour".

Some airlines like US low cost carrier, Southwest Airlines, have extremely large fleets, and find it more economical to have their own maintenance and engineering operations. For Southwest, these engineering centres are based at their major hubs of Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Chicago, and Atlanta. The centres routinely swap out the CFM56 engines of their all Boeing 737 fleet. Since an aircraft earns money for an airline only when it is flying, airlines always keep spare engines, which are swapped out, allowing the aircraft to be put back in to service quickly. The engine then undergoes repairs and maintenance offline.

The CFM56 engines powering the Boeing 737NG weigh about 2,500kgs each, and even the well experienced technicians at Southwest take between four and seven hours to do a routine engine swap. In the video, observe the synchronism of teamwork that makes this complex task look routine, a task Southwest technicians perform over 154 times a year.

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Videos: Behind the scenes of an A380 departure and an engine inspection

Our two videos today come courtesy Air France.

Have you ever wondered what happens around your plane while you are waiting for your flight to board and depart? In first video, Air France reveals an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the frenetic activity performed by hundreds of people prior to the departure of an A380. Next go behind the scene at Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) and see the inspection and maintenance of a GE90 engine, the largest civil aircraft engine in the world, from its arrival at the Air France hangar to the test phase at the new Air France engine test cell.





Below is a detailed graphic showing the engine inspection and maintenance process.

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