In February, Air India announced that they would be going with CFM, a joint venture of Safran and GE, as engines for their Airbus and Boeing narrow-body aircraft, which were announced in the same timeframe. This order has now been finalised.

Air India finalises orders for 800 CFM International LEAP engines.

As is with any order, there is an understanding stage, and then there is the final paperwork and order finalised stage. Air India finalised their orders for the 470 aircraft and announced the deals at Paris Airshow 2023.

Now, Air India and CFM International have finalised the order of LEAP engines that will power the airline’s upcoming fleet of 210 Airbus A320/A321neos and 190 Boeing 737 MAX family aircraft.  Both companies also signed a multi-year services agreement covering the airline’s entire fleet of LEAP engines.

Air India has been a CFM customer since 2002 when the airline began operating Airbus A320ceo aircraft powered by CFM56-5B engines. In 2017, Air India started to operate A320neos, becoming the first LEAP-1A-powered operator in India. The airline currently has 27 LEAP-1A-powered A320neo family aircraft in its fleet. Rival Pratt & Whitney has a GTF engine, but only for the Airbus range, and for Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, there is no option for engines.

LEAP engines provide 15 to 20 per cent better fuel consumption, lower CO2 emissions, and a significant reduction in noise compared to previous-generation engines. Since it entered into service in 2016, the LEAP engine has allowed customers to save more than 20 million tons of CO2 compared to the same flights operated using aircraft powered by previous-generation engines.

Bottomline

Air India has selected CFM Engines’ LEAP engine, which is manufactured both for the Airbus A320neo family (LEAP-1A) and Boeing 737 MAX family (LEAP-1B), as its supplier for the 400 narrow-body aircraft that Air India expects to induct in the fleet over the coming years. This order will give a considerable leg up to CFM over Pratt & Whitney, whose GTF engine troubles seem to be the talk of the town all for the wrong reasons, and airlines are hence all heading towards CFM for the time being (in India).

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