The deal goes far beyond a simple purchase of hardware: it ties one of Europe’s most aggressive budget airlines even more tightly to a French-American engine maker that already rules the single-aisle market.
Pegasus signs the biggest engine order in its history
Pegasus Airlines has finalised an agreement with CFM International for 300 LEAP‑1B engines, including spares and a long-term maintenance package.
The scale is striking. The engine order follows Pegasus’s headline-grabbing purchase of 100 Boeing 737‑10 aircraft announced in December 2024. With the airframes now matched to their powerplants, the Turkish carrier is effectively placing a multibillion-euro bet on one technology, one partner and one growth trajectory.
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Pegasus is pairing the largest aircraft order in its history with a long-term engine and maintenance deal worth an estimated €3–5 billion.
For a low-cost airline where aircraft utilisation sits at the heart of the business model, the combination of hardware and guaranteed support may matter more than the aircraft themselves. Unplanned groundings destroy margins. Locking in engine supply, spare units and maintenance terms well ahead of delivery gives Pegasus a clearer runway for expansion.
An old alliance between Pegasus and CFM
Pegasus is not dabbling with a new supplier. Its relationship with CFM International – the 50:50 joint venture between US-based GE Aerospace and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines – goes back decades.
The carrier started with CFM56‑3 engines, then moved through CFM56‑5B and CFM56‑7B models as it expanded its fleet. That long track record gave Pegasus a front-row seat to CFM’s technological evolution and its maturing support network.
There’s also a historic milestone: Pegasus became the first airline in the world to operate CFM’s new-generation LEAP engines on a commercial flight, between Istanbul and Antalya, as early as July 2016. That early adoption reflected both technical confidence and the airline’s appetite for fuel savings.
Today, the LEAP‑1B stands as CFM’s flagship engine for single-aisle jets, powering the Boeing 737 MAX family and forming a central pillar of the company’s dominance in the segment.
Leap‑1b, built for relentless low-cost flying
The LEAP‑1B is much more than a tweaked CFM56. It brings substantial technology shifts designed for airlines that expect aircraft to fly almost nonstop.
- Composite fan blades and casings cut weight and improve efficiency.
- Ceramic matrix composites in hot sections withstand higher temperatures.
- Advanced health monitoring systems track performance in real time.
These advances translate into around 15% lower fuel burn and roughly 15% less CO₂ emissions compared with previous-generation CFM56 engines. Noise and local air pollutants also decline, a growing concern for airports and regulators.
The LEAP‑1B’s design targets exactly the profile of a low-cost carrier: short turnarounds, high cycles and near-continuous operation.
For Pegasus, this means not just lower fuel bills but also engines that tolerate hard use. Short-haul low-cost networks depend on rapid turnarounds and high daily utilisation. Engines that handle frequent take-offs and landings without frequent shop visits are worth paying for.
Why the Boeing 737‑10 changes the game for Pegasus
The Boeing 737‑10, the largest member of the 737 MAX family, sits at the heart of Pegasus’s growth plan. Longer than earlier variants, it can carry up to about 230 passengers in a high-density layout.
For a low-cost carrier, this creates a simple lever: more seats per flight without adding extra frequencies. On crowded regional and medium-haul routes, an airline that can push capacity while keeping unit costs flat – or lowering them – gains an edge on fares and yields.
The LEAP‑1B enables that strategy. A bigger aircraft usually risks higher fuel costs, but the engine’s efficiency helps keep the cost per seat under control. That combination of extra capacity and manageable operating costs gives Pegasus room to compete aggressively on ticket prices while still protecting margins.
A young fleet as a structural advantage
Pegasus already operates one of the youngest fleets in global aviation, with an average age of about 4.9 years. That youth brings several structural benefits:
- Lower fuel consumption compared with older jets.
- Reduced unscheduled maintenance and fewer technical delays.
- Easier compliance with tightening environmental regulations.
By doubling down on new 737‑10s equipped with the latest engines, Pegasus reinforces a kind of industrial resilience. Newer technology gives the airline more flexibility to absorb swings in fuel prices, new climate policies or shifts in passenger demand without needing a fundamental rethink of its model.
A deal that could reach €5 billion
Neither Pegasus nor CFM has published a formal price tag for the contract, which is common in large aviation deals. Yet the rough economics can be pieced together.
List prices for a LEAP‑1B engine sit in the region of €12–14 million. Large buyers such as Pegasus, especially with long-standing relationships and big volume commitments, typically secure discounts of 40–50% off list.
On that basis, the 300 engines themselves could carry a net value of around €1.8–2.4 billion. Then come the spares, which are crucial for uptime but rarely detailed publicly.
Long-term maintenance contracts can match or even exceed the value of the engines, stretching over 20–30 years of operation.
Those long-term service agreements – sometimes sold under “power-by-the-hour” style arrangements – are where engine makers often earn steady cash for decades. Once maintenance and spares are included, industry estimates suggest the total economic value of the Pegasus–CFM package likely lands somewhere between €3 and €5 billion.
CFM’s grip on the single-aisle market
The Pegasus deal reinforces CFM International’s dominant position in single-aisle aircraft, the workhorses of global commercial aviation. With more than 4,000 LEAP engines delivered across variants, the programme has become the fastest-growing engine family in commercial aviation history.
The company’s recipe is straightforward: measurable fuel savings, proven reliability and a vast, relatively open maintenance ecosystem. For airlines, that translates into predictable operating costs and a wide choice of overhaul partners.
How the engine market splits in 2025
Industry data for 2025 shows just how strong CFM’s position has become:
| Segment | Engine maker | Estimated market share | Main engine programmes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-aisle | CFM International | around 70–75% | CFM56, LEAP‑1A, LEAP‑1B, LEAP‑1C |
| Pratt & Whitney | around 25–30% | PW1100G, PW1500G, PW1900G | |
| Others | under 5% | Niche and ageing fleets | |
| Wide-body | Rolls‑Royce | around 50–55% | Trent XWB, Trent 7000, Trent 1000 |
| GE Aerospace | around 35–40% | GE90, GEnx | |
| Pratt & Whitney | around 10–15% | PW4000 (declining fleets) | |
| Total commercial | CFM International | around 45% | Dominance in single-aisle |
| Rolls‑Royce | around 30% | Strength in wide-body | |
| GE Aerospace | around 15% | Large installed base | |
| Pratt & Whitney | around 10% | Significant presence on A320neo |
The Pegasus order helps lock in that single-aisle advantage through the 2030s. Every new 737‑10 powered by LEAP‑1B expands CFM’s installed base and feeds a long pipeline of future maintenance revenue.
What “engine plus maintenance” really means for airlines
For non-specialists, the idea that a maintenance contract can rival the price of the engines may sound surprising. Yet jet engines require extensive overhauls during their life. These shop visits involve disassembly, replacement of worn components and reassembly to strict tolerances.
Airlines increasingly buy “power-by-the-hour” style deals, where they pay a fixed rate per flight hour or per flight cycle. The engine maker then assumes much of the financial risk of unexpected repairs.
For Pegasus, this kind of arrangement brings predictability. Budget carriers operate on thin margins and need tight control of cash flows. Knowing roughly what each flight hour will cost in engine maintenance helps with pricing, route planning and long-term financial modelling.
There are trade-offs. Such contracts can lock carriers into specific service providers and technologies for decades. Switching engines or negotiating more flexible terms later can be difficult. Pegasus is effectively binding its growth to CFM’s performance for a generation of aircraft.
Environmental pressure and future scenarios
The timing of the deal also speaks to the industry’s climate challenge. Single-aisle aircraft generate a significant share of aviation emissions, especially on busy short- and medium-haul routes in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
A 15% cut in fuel burn and CO₂ from each LEAP‑1B-equipped aircraft might not sound dramatic on its own. Yet scaled across 100 new aircraft flying multiple sectors daily, the emissions avoided become substantial. That could matter if carbon pricing in Europe tightens, or if Turkey faces new emissions-related constraints on airlines.
One plausible scenario for the 2030s: regulators push for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blending mandates of 20–30%. Engines like the LEAP‑1B, designed to be compatible with higher SAF blends, allow airlines to comply while keeping fuel penalties within a manageable range. An older, less efficient fleet would struggle more under that regime.
For Pegasus, the combination of young airframes, efficient engines and long-term service coverage provides insulation against some of those future shocks. It doesn’t solve aviation’s climate problem, but it buys time and flexibility.
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