Wednesday, June 16, 1999
GE cleaning up in Paris
Engine sales worth $1.6 B
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As the deal-making gathers momentum at the Paris Air Show, GE Aircraft Engines and CFM International, its partnership with French engine-maker Snecma, have garnered firm orders and options estimated at more than $1.6 billion.
In one of the largest deals at the air show, Boeing Co. Tuesday said International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC), a leading aircraft leasing firm, placed orders for up to 100 next-generation Boeing 737s.
CFMI engines, the exclusive power plant for the newer, narrow-body 737s, are assembled mainly in Evendale and in Villaroche, France.
Total value of the order for 50 firm and 50 optional 737s was estimated at $4.85 billion. That puts CFMI's share of the order at more than $900 million. However, industry analysts said Beverly Hills, Calif.-based ILFC probably won deep discounts.
Rivals Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp., and Rolls-Royce plc haven't been shut out, though.
British-based Rolls said it won $155 million in new engine orders Tuesday to power Embraer regional jets, bringing its total business announced during the show to $843 million.
Pratt said New Jersey-based aircraft leasing company CIT Group picked the newest version of its PW4000 engine to power two Airbus Industrie A330 widebody jets, an engine order valued at $48 million.
On Monday, International Aero Engines, a partnership that includes both Pratt and Rolls, won engine orders valued at $180 million to supply engines for Airbus Industrie A320 jets ordered by Boullioun Aviation Services Inc., another aircraft leasing company.
The ILFC order came on the heels of CFMI engine orders on Monday valued at $350 million for 35 firm and 20 optional next-generation Boeing 737s from CIT Group, Midway Airlines and Jet Airways of India.
In another series of deals, a version of GEAE's smaller CF34 engine family was picked to power 70- and 90-seat versions of a new regional jet launched by Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautic SA (Embraer) at the air show.
Crossair AG, a Swiss carrier and Europe's largest regional airline, placed firm orders for 30 of the Embraer's 70-seat ERJ-170s and 30 of its 90-seat ERJ-190s.
The value of the engines for those aircraft was estimated at $360 million. Embraer also said France's Regional Airlines placed another order for 10 ERJ-170s, an engine deal worth $60 million to GEAE.
GE is a partner in Embraer's $850 million program to develop the new ERJ-170 and ERJ-190 aircraft and now has a “three-way” in the fast-growing regional jet market.
The 14,000-pound thrust class CF34 engine, the power plant on Canadair Regional Jet's 50-passenger aircraft, also powers the 70-seat version, the 700 series CRJ, now in flight tests and will power Fairchild Aerospace's new 70-seat 728JET, its 55-seat 528JET and 90-to-100-seat 928JET.
GE Aircraft Engines also won another CF34 order valued at more than $100 million to supply engines for 25 Fairchild Envoy 7 business jets. That is a variation of the 728JET, ordered by Flight Options Inc., a Cleveland-based fractional aircraft company whose president is Darnell H. Martens of Lebanon in Warren County.
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