16 November, 2018: Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain has signed a long-term agreement with CFM International for the maintenance of the airline’s LEAP-1A engines. The agreement is valued at just over US $ 1 billion at list price.
Under the terms of this 10-year Rate per Flight Hour agreement, which covers a total of 65 LEAP-1A engines that the airline ordered in 2017, CFM will provide maintenance support for Gulf Air’s fleet on a dollar per flight hour basis.
Gulf Air has been a CFM customer since 1992 and presently operates a fleet of 16 Airbus A320ceo aircraft powered by CFM56-5B engines. The company began commercial operations with the A320neo powered by LEAP-1A engines in August 2018.
“We are excited to expand our long-term partnership with CFM, which has been a key partner in our development for more than 25 years,” said Krešimir Ku?ko, CEO of Gulf Air. We are extremely pleased with the LEAP engine we recently introduced into our fleet. This engine will allow us to continue to improve our commercial offer, while optimizing our operating costs.”
Since entering commercial service in August 2016, the LEAP engine has accumulated more than 2 million flight hours with 77 operators worldwide and has provided a 96 percent daily utilisation rate.