EVENDALE, Ohio - US Airways has reached agreement with General Electric Company to purchase GEnx engines for its new order of 20 Airbus A350 aircraft. 

US Airways is scheduled to take delivery of its A350s beginning in 2011. The GEnx engine contract with US Airways is valued at more than $400 million. 

"GE has collaborated closely with US Airways as it restructures and invests in new aircraft," said David Romansky, GE's regional sales director. "GE has a long history with the airline and looks forward to supporting this new aircraft fleet." 

To date, GE has signed agreements to power a total of 112 A350 aircraft with its fast-selling GEnx engine. 

Airbus has established an integrated certification schedule for the A350, which includes GEnx engine flight-testing in 2009, and aircraft/engine certification in 2010. GE has a full-time team of engineers at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, collaborating on the A350 program. 

The GEnx is based on the highly successful GE90 architecture. It will succeed GE's CF6 engine family, which is the most reliable and best-selling engine on wide-body aircraft. It provides significantly better fuel burn and payload performance than GE's CF6 engines. 

The GEnx engine is the world's only jet engine with 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 issue for almost 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 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.