CFM56 Engines: The Standard To Which Others Are Judged
FARNBOROUGH - Every seven seconds, a CFM56-powered aircraft takes off somewhere in the world and is on schedule 99.96 percent of the time. CFM56 engines consistently record the industry's best reliability ratings as the standard to which all others are judged.
CFM56 engines are produced by CFM International (CFMI), a 50/50 joint company between Snecma of France and General Electric of the United States.
The fleet's 99.96 dispatch reliability rate translates to less than one aircraft departure per 2,500 being delayed or canceled for engine-caused reasons. The CFM56 shop visit rate of .075 is equivalent to one unscheduled, engine-caused shop visit every 13,300 hours, and the in-flight shutdown (IFSD) rate of .003 translates to one incident every 333,333 flight hours. On average, an engine in this thrust class would accumulate 2,500 to 3,500 flight hours annually.
While overall CFM56 fleet statistics are impressive, the individual engine programs are equally noteworthy. For example, a CFM56-3 engine powering a Boeing 737-300 for Germania Flug is well on its way to a new record for initial time on wing. The engine has logged more than 26,000 flight hours without a shop visit, and is expected to remain in service until it reaches 30,000 hours next year. The engine must be removed at this time due to life-limited parts in its core. Fleet wide, the average time to first shop visit in 1995 was more than 12,300 hours and 9,100 cycles. This rate has continually improved, and newer engines are expected to average more than 14,000 hours and 10,000 cycles before their initial shop visit.
The CFM56-5B, in service on the Airbus A319/A320/A321 family, has logged nearly 170,000 flight hours since April 1994 without a single IFSD, while the CFM56-5C powerplant for the Airbus A340 has logged more than 2.5 million hours with a shop visit rate of .027 (one unscheduled, engine-caused shop visit per 37,000 flight hours). For airline customers, this solid tradition of reliability and durability translates to a direct, positive impact on their profitability. CFM56 engines have the lowest overall cost of ownership of any engine in this class. For example, the CFM56-5B has a lower shop visit rate than the competition, and the cost of each visit is nearly $300,000 less.
There are nearly 7,400 CFM56 engines in service on more than 2,600 aircraft worldwide, and this fleet has logged more than 80,000 engine flight hours and 53,000 cycles.