EVENDALE, Ohio - Continental Airlines has placed an order for CF6-80C2 engines to power 10 Boeing 767-200ER aircraft in an engine deal valued at approximately $160 million.

Aircraft delivery is scheduled to begin in 2000.

Houston-based Continental also anticipates delivery of 26 GE CF6-powered Boeing 767-400ER aircraft beginning in 2000 in an order announced earlier this year.

"Continental has finalized its widebody fleet plan, and GE is very pleased to be part of those plans," said Jim Raphael, GEAE sales director for North America.

The CF6-80C2, which entered service in 1984, is the industry leader in its thrust class in terms of reliability, durability, maintainability, cost of ownership, and fuel burn. The fleet has logged more than 47 million flight hours while maintaining a dispatch reliability of 99.96 percent, which translates to less than one flight per 2,000 departures being delayed for 15 minutes or more or canceled for engine-related issues. The engine also has an in-flight shutdown rate of .005, which means that there is only one event per 200,000 flight hours. On average, wide-body aircraft log between 4,000 and 5,000 flight hours per year.