Air Asia has chosen the CFM56-5B engine to power its fleet of Airbus A320 twinjets. With this contract, CFM International, an equally-owned subsidiary of Snecma and General Electric, has consolidated its leadership in the low-cost carrier market.

The Malaysian low-cost carrier Air Asia is still young, since it only started operations in 2001, but it has some very heady ambitions. Air Asia already operates a fleet of 26 Boeing 737-700s, powered by the CFM56-3, and has just placed an order for 60 Airbus A320s, along with 40 more on option – all powered by the CFM56-5B! Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes also calmly announced that one day his airline could be operating a fleet of 400 aircraft!

Having proven its value in North America and Europe, the low-cost model is now taking hold in Asia. Perhaps the most striking example is Air Asia, which has already logged four straight years of profits.

CFMI, already an engine supplier to most of the world’s low-cost carriers, is especially attentive to this fiercely competitive market – and hopes to soon duplicate the $750 million Air Asia contract, signed on June 13 at the Paris Air Show.

Photo, left to right: Marc Ventre, Dave Calhoun, the deputy prime minister, the minister of transport, Tony Fernandes and Pierre Fabre.