Akasa Air, India’s newest airline and CFM International have announced an agreement to purchase CFM LEAP-1B engines to power 150 Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. The announcement comes in conjunction with the state visit of the French President Emmanuel Macron to India. French engine maker CFM will provide 300 CFM LEAP-1B engines for the MAX planes, the sale of which was announced last week.
Also read: Noida International Airport Partners Akasa Air As Airline Partner
The agreement also includes spare engines and a service contract. CFM is the world’s leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines and produces the LEAP family of engines and supports LEAP and CFM56 fleets for operators worldwide. Akasa Air previously ordered 76 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft before launching its operations in August 2022.
All the 22 Boeing 737 MAX currently in operation with Akasa Air are powered by LEAP-1B engines, and the rest of the planes will also be powered the efficient set of engines. This new order grows CFM’s footprint in India, with more than 400 CFM-powered aircraft in service and 2,500 LEAP engines in the backlog.
CFM LEAP Aicraft Engine
The LEAP engine family has the fastest accumulation of flight hours in commercial aviation history, amassing more than 45 million engine flight hours and 18.7 million flight cycles. Since entering service in 2016, the LEAP engine has helped operators save more than 30 million tons of CO2 compared to the same flights with previous generation engines.
Both CFM’s parent companies GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines have significantly invested in India to build state-of-the-art facilities dedicated to LEAP production and maintenance, while signing strategic partnerships with Indian aerospace companies as part of the “Make in India” policy.
“This significant, long-term agreement is testament to the confidence that CFM International has in Akasa Air. Continuing to partner with CFM as our engine maintenance provider not only reaffirms our focus on operational reliability but equally underscores Akasa Air’s relentless pursuit of world class safety” said Vinay Dube, Founder and CEO of Akasa Air. With CFM as our long-term engine maintenance provider, we remain confident in our path to becoming one of the top 30 leading airlines in the world, by the turn of this decade”, he added.
“Our customers, including Akasa, are seeing 15 to 20 percent better fuel efficiency with their LEAP-powered fleets and it has the highest reliability and daily utilization rates in this thrust class,” said Gaël Méheust, president & CEO of CFM International. “Today’s order will continue to bring these benefits to Akasa and support their continued growth, as well as play an important role in India’s economic development.”
Noida Airport-Akasa Air Partnership
Recently, Noida International Airport entered into a strategic collaboration with Akasa Air to establish the upcoming Jewar Airport as the base airport to operate domestic and international flights. Akasa Air is the second airline after IndiGo to partner with the Noida Airport near Greater Noida region.