CFM Engines Power All SWA Planes

Coinciding with its announcement Thursday that the airline will exercise purchase options on 79 new Boeing 737-700s, Southwest Airlines has announced a $1 billion order (at list price) for CFM56-7B engines to power the planes. The airline is scheduled to take delivery of the new aircraft between 2007 and 2012.

"Since the CFM56-7B entered service, it has been delivering industry-leading reliability. We owe much of that success to our long-term relationship with Southwest and Boeing," said Bill Clapper, executive vice president of CFM International. "Their involvement in the development of this engine helped us produce a high quality, highly reliable, cost-efficient product that has rapidly become the backbone of single-aisle fleets around the globe."

CFM56-7B engines are produced by CFM International (CFM), a 50/50 joint company between Snecma and General Electric Company and the world's leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines with more than 15,500 engines in service with more than 450 operators worldwide.

Southwest Airlines currently serves 62 cities in 32 states and operates more than 3,000 flights daily with an all CFM-powered fleet. The airline -- CFM's largest commercial customer -- helped launch both the CFM56-3 on the Boeing Classic 737s, and the CFM56-7B on the Next-Generation 737 series.

"Southwest trusts CFM to power its entire fleet," said David Romansky, sales director for CFM. "With this order, the United State's largest domestic carrier has entrusted its future fleet to CFM, as well. This order means a great deal to us because it confirms that we have done our job well."

The order will take the airline's CFM56-powered 737 fleet to more than 550 aircraft by 2012.

FMI: www.cfm56.com, www.southwest.com