National carrier Oman Air said it has signed a Rate per Flight Hour (RPFH) agreement with CFM International, a leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines, for the airline’s fleet of 33 CFM56-7B engines.

The RPFH is a comprehensive maintenance program customised to Oman Air’s specific requirements.

Under the terms of the agreement, CFM guarantees the maintenance cost on a dollar per engine flight hour basis for the airline’s entire fleet of installed and spare CFM56-7B engines powering its fleet of 15 Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft.

'The agreement we signed today begins the next chapter of a successful partnership”, said Salim Al Kindy, chief technical officer of Oman Air.

“We are very proud to offer our customers the industry-leading, on-time reliability through this tie-up. This comprehensive service and support package will enable us to keep our costs predictable and allow us to focus better on serving our customers ever better,” said Al Kindy.

Oman Air, which was formed in 1993 as the designated carrier of the Sultanate, became a CFM customer in 2001, when it became the first airline in the Gulf region to order CFM56-7B-powered Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft, he added.

Today, the airline operates a fleet of 23 aircraft and serves nearly 41 destinations throughout the Gulf region, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the Far East.
 
CFM56-7B engines are a product of CFM International, a joint venture between Snecma (Safran group) and GE.

CFM, the world's leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines, has delivered more than 21,300 engines to date and the fleet has achieved more than 500 million flight hours as the most reliable engines in the air.-TradeArabia News Service