The Boeing Company announced the Board of Director's approval to launch the new engine variant of the Boeing 737 powered by CFM International's LEAP-1B engine. CFM International is a 50/50 joint venture between GE and Snecma (Safran group).

"Today's Board of Director's approval of Boeing 737 new engine family is the culmination of years of close collaboration between Boeing, GE Aviation and Snecma on future product planning," said David Joyce, president and chief executive officer of GE Aviation. "By working together, we identified the key requirements of our customers and optimized the LEAP engine to deliver more fuel efficiency with the world-class reliability and ease of maintenance that are hallmarks of our CFM56 engines."

"GE Aviation has made extraordinary investments in key engine technologies over the last decade, and the advanced technologies that we developed will drive the LEAP's success in the narrowbody segment," said Chip Blankenship, vice president and general manager of Commercial Engines at GE Aviation. "We congratulate Boeing on the launch of the 737 new engine family and look forward to the continuing our collaboration for many more years with this new offering."