The Paris Air Show is a global showcase for new aircraft orders, and in just a few days, we have seen some spectacular announcements, like the one from IndiGo for 500 Airbus airliners. While the aircraft OEMs often take center stage, the engine makers are happily filling their own order books with at least two powerplants for every jet sold.
Yesterday in Paris, GE Aerospace (GE) announced it had secured major deals with Riyadh Air, Republic Airways and Garuda Indonesia, covering their GEnx-1B, CF34-8E, GE90 and CFM56 engines. The latter is part of the CFM 50/50 joint venture between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines. Simple Flying has covered The Riyadh Air news elsewhere, so here is the news on the Republic Airways and Garuda International announcements.
More engines for Republic's Embraer fleet
The United States airline Republic Airways (Republic) operates a fleet of 214 Embraer E170/175 regional jets on about 1,000 daily flights to 80 cities in the US, Canada and the Caribbean. It does so under its major American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express airline partner brands.
Republic relies on the CF34-8E engine to keep those Embraer jets flying and announced an order for 37 engines, including spare parts and an extension of its TrueChoice services agreement. The relationship between GE and Republic stretches back more than 20 years, and yesterday's news is a testament to how well the engine has performed in that time.
Kathy MacKenzie is vice president of GE Aerospace Commercial Programs, and she said that Republic Airways is one of the largest CF34 operators in the world, adding:
"We are extremely proud that they continue to put their trust in our engines, operating these CF34-8Es day in and day out. With our expanded services agreement, our mission is that the airline continues to receive the same high-quality MRO service and support that they have come to expect from GE Aerospace."
The CF34 entered service in 1992 on the Bombardier CRJ100, and today the engine, in its variants of -3, -8 and -10 models, powers more than 3,600 regional aircraft. The CF34-8E is in-service with 46 operators and has accumulated more than 38 million flight hours and 27 million cycles since entering service on the Embraer E170/175 in 2004.
Keep up to date with all the latest Paris Air Show news here.
Strategic partnership with Garuda Indonesia
One of the clear lessons from this post-pandemic recovery is the importance of partnerships between operators and OEMs and support when supply chains are disrupted. Yesterday, GE and Garuda Indonesia (Garuda) announced a strategic cooperation to restore and overhaul the airline's fleet of GE90 and CFM engines.
Garuda and its subsidiaries, Garuda Group, GMF AeroAsia and Citilink, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GE that includes training and skills development, lease engine support and overhaul services. The relationship goes back to the 1970s, and in 2013 Garuda took delivery of its first GE90-115B-powered Boeing 777-300ER.
Today Garuda Indonesia depends on a fleet of 16 GE90-115B engines for its 777s, 74 CFM56-7B for 737NGs, while Citilink uses 76 CFM56-5B on Airbus A320ceos and 20 LEAP-1A engines on its A320neos. President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia Irfan Setiaputra said:
"Garuda Indonesia mainly focuses on optimizing production capacity through the enhancement of operations, which one of the plans would increase the total of serviceable aircraft to grab wider opportunities in domestic and international networks. Therefore, having continuous support from GE to support the aircraft readiness to be airworthy is one of the primary fundamentals for us to prepare a seamless, safe and comfortable flight experience for our customers."
As well as providing new engines and spares, GE experts will train Garuda Group engineers to deepen their engine and maintenance knowledge and leadership skills, to strengthen the airline's service improvement.
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