Gulf Air, the international airline and flagship carrier of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, logged one million flight hours of CFM engines on its Airbus A320 and A340. In recognition of this achievement CFM International, a joint venture by SNECMA of France and General Electric of the United States, held a celebration ceremony at Le Royal Meridien in Bahrain and presented Gulf Air with a commemorative plaque.

CFM`s President and Chief Executive Office Gerard Laviec presented the Award to Ibrahim AlHamer, President and Chief Executive of Gulf Air. Senior management from Gulf Air, CFM International, Gamco (Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Company), Civil Aviation and other Government dignitaries also attended.

Gulf Air took delivery of its first CFM56-5A powered Airbus A320 in 1992 and today operates a fleet of 12 on its routes throughout the Middle East. In 1994, Gulf introduced the long-range, four-engine Airbus A3240-300, powered by the CFM56-5C engine. The five A340s currently in service are operated on routes to Europe, Africa, Australia and the Asia Pacific Region.

“Gulf Air has used CFM engines for almost 10 years and we would not have achieved this milestone without Gamco`s excellent maintenance record. I would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincerest thanks and appreciation to Gamco for all its efforts and to CFM for this honour,” said Ibrahim Al Hamer, President and Chief Executive of Gulf Air.

” I would also like to thank all the pilots for operating the aircraft at such high standards of professionalism and the ground engineers for servicing the engines during stop-overs at our route stations,” he added.

Information on CFM:

CFM International is a joint venture (CFMI) created in 1974 by SNECMA of France and GE Aircraft Engines of the United States to manage the CFM56 engine programme. The CFM engine family includes six engine models that range from 18,500 to 34,000 pounds takeoff thrust and power 29 commercial and military applications. The first CFM56 engine was delivered in 1982. Today, there are nearly 12,000 CFM56 engines in service with more than 330 customers in 100 countries. This fleet has logged nearly 170 million flight hours and more than 100 million flight cycles as the most reliable engines in the air. The commercial fleet maintains a 99.7 percent dispatch reliability rate, a .003 in-flight shutdown rate, and a.065 shop visit rate.

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