In a special ceremony held at Air Arabia’s hangar in Sharjah, UAE, Air Arabia and CFM International celebrated the achievement of one million engine flight hours with the airline’s fleet of CFM56-5B engines.

Air Arabia, the first and largest low cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and North Africa fleet has also been awarded the elite TRUEngine Status by the manufacturer CFM, one of few airlines to receive this award.

Speaking at the ceremony, held today in Sharjah to celebrate these achievements; Adel A. Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia, said; “The success of Air Arabia’s relationship with CFM International is evidenced by our 10 year partnership. Air Arabia enjoys a long track record of operational excellence and we remain focused on offering the best value to our customers combined with excellent operational performance. This means a world track record in utilization of our resources, including the Airbus A320 aircraft powered by the state-of the art CFM56 engines.”

Air Arabia has been a CFM customer since it began scheduled service in October 2003. It has received the TRUEngine designation following a rigorous review of its maintenance and flight records. The designation serves as a method for identifying engines with CFM-approved content and facilitates product support of the engine system. Moreover, industry stakeholders can use the knowledge of engine content to evaluate engine value and re-marketability.

"We are pleased to celebrate these two tremendous milestones with Air Arabia, and the entire CFM Team extends its warmest congratulations,” said Jean-Paul Ebanga, President and CEO of CFM International. “We believe that we build the most reliable engines in the air, but we know it is the maintenance crews at our airline customers that keep them flying. The Air Arabia team has done an outstanding job maintaining these engines. The fleet has maintained a 99.98 percent departure reliability rate. These statistics rank among the very best in the industry. We consider it an honor to be part of the team.”

The TRUEngine program is available for all CFM56 engines. To qualify, a customer submits a declared list of compliant engine serial numbers, along with engine maintenance records, to CFM for evaluation to ensure the engine content, overhaul practices, and repairs are consistent with CFM requirements for that engine model.

Air Arabia enjoys a track record of excellence in operational performance. The carrier has consistently been recognized amongst the world’s best operator of an Airbus A320 fleet. The holds Airbus award for achieving the highest level of Airbus A320 aircraft utilisation in the world.