FARNBOROUGH: Engine battles

Key engine battles continue to play out as the Farnborough airshow got underway, led by CFM International and IAE as they continue to fight it out to maintain their positions on the Airbus A320 family.

After a wave of announcements during the opening days of the show, engine selections had emerged for just over 160 aircraft within the A320 family, with the CFM56 on 70% against V2500 on 30%. But with just over 140 orders placed for the A320 family without an engine selection, there is still all to play for.

The largest business came from leasing giant GECAS with 60 A320 orders equipped with the CFM56, followed by another major piece of business from Chile’s LAN as it confirmed that it would equip 57 A320s and 13 A319s with the engine. IAE also picked up 36 A321s from Vietnam from the country’s flag-carrier and its main lessor. However, engines have yet to be confirmed on the 52 A320 types ordered by RBS Aviation Capital.

These latest announcements are more or less in line with the current shares held by CFMI and IAE going into the show. At the end of June, before Farnborough opened its gates, the CFM56 was on 58% of the world’s active A320 family fleet against IAE’s 42%. That share has been stable for the past three years, as demonstrated by analysis from Flightglobal’s ACAS fleet database. However, that pre-Farnborough analysis also shows that IAE held a higher volume of the pre-Farnborough backlog, with 42% of the 2,240 A320s then on order against 35% for CFMI, but with another 24% still to confirm selection.

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Elsewhere at Farnborough, the Engine Alliance extended its lead on the A380 as Emirates confirmed that its additional 32 orders would indeed be powered by the GP7200. Going into the show, the Engine Alliance held 53% of A380 orders, with Rolls-Royce on 38% and 9% still to be declared.

General Electric’s lead in the race to power the Boeing 787 was also extended at Farnborough as Etihad announced a 35-aircraft order to be equipped with the GEnx engine. Prior to Farnborough, the GEnx held 43% of the 860 orders with Rolls-Royce on 29% and 28% still to be declared.

For more information on the ACAS fleet analysis tool visit www.flightglobal.com/acas.

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