CFM International's advanced LEAP engine continues to set a new industry standard for fuel efficiency and asset utilization as the fleet continues the most rapid buildup in commercial aviation history, surpassing 600,000 flight hours in less than 18 months of commercial service.

The first LEAP-powered commercial flight happened on August 2, 2016 on a Pegasus Airlines flight from Istanbul to Antalya. Since then, more than 210 LEAP-1A and LEAP-1B-powered aircraft have entered service with a total of 33 operators on five continents. Overall, this fleet has logged more than 610,000 flight hours and 290,000 flight cycles.

"The LEAP engine ramp-up story is really quite exceptional," said Gael Meheust, president and CEO of CFM International. "The fleet is on track to reach the one-million flight hour milestone after less than two years of service, which is unprecedented for a new engine. Most importantly, though, is the fact that our customers are very, very pleased with all that the engine is delivering – fuel efficiency, reliability, and industry-leading utilization level of 96 percent of available days flown."

The LEAP is providing operators a 15 percent improvement in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions compared to today's best CFM engine, along with dramatic reductions in engine noise. All this technology is focused on providing better utilization, including CFM's legendary reliability out of the box; greater asset availability; enhanced time on wing margins to help keep maintenance costs low; and minimized maintenance actions, all supported by sophisticated analytics that enable CFM to provide tailored, predictive maintenance over the life of the product.