EVENDALE, OH -- Shanghai Airlines has reached agreement with GE - Aviation to purchase the GEnx engine to power its 9 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
The first aircraft delivery scheduled for June 2008 will be one of the first GEnx-powered Boeing 787 aircraft delivered worldwide. Shanghai Airlines will deploy the new 787s for its expanding international routes.
The GEnx engine order is valued at more than $220 million. Shanghai Airlines has also reached an OnPointsm Solutions service agreement with GE for the maintenance of its GEnx fleet.
Shanghai Airlines, based in Shanghai, China, the first commercial airline and the first Star Alliance airline in China, is a significant GE customer with a fleet of Boeing 737s and Bombardier CRJs powered respectively by CFM International (50/50 joint company of GE and Snecma Moteurs) and GE engines.
"We are pleased to expand our cooperation with GE," said Zhou Chi, Chairman of Shanghai Airlines. "GE's proven reliability and performance, coupled with the low cost of ownership of the engines, will make GEnx engines an integral part of Shanghai Airlines' international growth strategy."
"We are extremely gratified with the confidence that Shanghai Airlines has put in the GEnx engine," said Scott Donnelly, President and CEO of GE - Aviation. "We cherish the great relationship that GE and Shanghai Airlines have built up over the years, and we are fully focused on enhancing it."
The GEnx is the best-selling engine for the Boeing 787. Selected for three new wide-body aircraft under development, the GEnx has orders exceeding 600 engines.
Based on the highly successful GE90 architecture, the engine will succeed GE's CF6 engine family, which is the most reliable and best-selling engine on wide-body aircraft. It provides significantly better specific fuel consumption and payload performance than GE's CF6 engines. Testing began earlier this year on the GEnx engine, with engine certification scheduled for 2007.
The GEnx engine is the world's only jet engine with both a front fan case and fan blades made of composites, which provide for greater engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating costs. The fan blades will utilize GE90 composite technology that has performed well, with no routine on-wing maintenance required and no in-service issues for more than a decade. The GEnx will operate with 18 fan blades (50 percent fewer than the CF6) at noise levels lower than any large GE commercial engine. The GEnx also features a new combustor for efficient fuel mixing before ignition, resulting in significantly lower oxides of nitrogen (NOx) levels.
The GEnx is part of GE's "ecomagination" product portfolio--GE's commitment to develop new, cost-effective technologies that enhance customers' environmental and operating performance.
GE - Aviation, an operating unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), is one of the world's leading manufacturers of jet engines for civil and military aircraft. GE also is a world-leading provider of maintenance and support services for jet engines.