ICBC Financial Leasing Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CFM International to purchase CFM56-5B engines to power a new fleet of 22 firm Airbus A320 family aircraft. The firm engine order, which includes three spare engines, is potentially valued at more than US$450 million at list price and the leasing company is scheduled to begin taking deliver in 2012.

Yang Kaisheng, president of ICBC and Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE, one of the parent companies of CFM International, attended the ceremony in Beijing.

This order represents the largest order by a Chinese financial leasing company and represents a breakthrough of the Chinese aviation leasing business.

Defined as the first trial by China State Council, ICBC Financial Leasing Co. Ltd. is the first banking financial leasing company approved by the China Banking Regulatory Commission. The company is fully owned by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and its current asset values approximately US$12 billion.

All of ICBC's new engines will be the CFM56-5B Performance Improvement Package (PIP) configuration. The -5B PIP completed extensive ground testing and more than 26 hours of flight testing on the A320. The engine, which will become the new production standard, is on schedule for certification and entry into service by the end of 2011.

The improvements, which provide a 0.5% improvement in fuel burn, include hardware changes to the core, including new high-pressure turbine blade, as well as manufacturing changes the fan and compressor blades and vanes to improve performance retention. The engine will maintain the same noise signature as the current production engine. These engines also meet current International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Committee of Aviation Environmental Protection standards (CAEP /6) requirements.

CFM56-5 engines are a product of CFM International, a 50/50 joint venture between Snecma (Safran group) and GE. CFM, the world's leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines, has delivered nearly 23,000 engines to date and the fleet has achieved nearly 550 million flight hours as the most reliable engines in the air.

Contributed by CFM International