CFM International announced $1.2 billion worth of orders yesterday at Le Bourget. One of Russia’s leading domestic carriers – S7 Airlines – ordered 75 CFM56 engines to power new Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft ($510million); Libyan government-owned Afriqiyah Airways ordered CFM56-5B engines to power a new fleet of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft ($190m); while Avianca, part of the Synergy Group, ordered CFM56-5B engines to power its new fleet of 33 Airbus A319/320 aircraft ($500m).
S7 Airlines’ 25 CFM56-5B-powered Airbus A320s will be delivered beginning in 2009, while the following year the airline will begin taking delivery of ten CFM56-7B-powered Boeing 737-800 airliners for operation within its charter division that will begin operations in 2010. All of S7’s engines will be in the new tech insertion configuration.
Afriqiyah Airways’ fleet of Airbus A319s and A320s plans to use its new aircraft to support its domestic, regional and international routes.
New routes
The airline has been operating to Europe since 2002 and currently services Paris, Brussels, Geneva and London. The airline has plans to open routes to Rome, Amsterdam and Cairo in the near future. Colombian airline Avianca (the first airline to be founded in the Americas) is a new CFM customer and will begin operating two leased CFM56-5B-powered A319s in early 2008 and is scheduled to take delivery of its purchased aircraft between 2008 and 2012. The airline operates to 20 destinations in Colombia and 19 cities in the USA and Europe from its Bogota hub, offering an average of 300 flights a day.
Source: Flight Daily News
