On July 20, 2026, engine maker CFM International and Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation announced a firm order for up to 300 CFM LEAP engines on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow. BOC Aviation described the agreement as the largest engine transaction in its history.
What BOC Aviation ordered
The order splits into 200 LEAP-1A engines and 100 LEAP-1B engines, according to CFM International. The LEAP-1A powers the Airbus A320neo family, while the LEAP-1B is the sole engine on the Boeing 737 MAX.
CFM said the engines will go onto aircraft that BOC Aviation had already ordered from both manufacturers, rather than representing a fresh order for airframes. At two engines per jet, the deal equips roughly 150 narrow bodies.
“This is our largest ever engine transaction and it will propel our growth from this decade into the next,” said BOC Aviation chief executive Steven Townend in the announcement.
BOC Aviation manages a portfolio of 811 owned, managed and on-order aircraft leased to 88 airlines across 45 countries. The lessor said LEAP engines already power more than 240 aircraft in that fleet, and its relationship with CFM dates to 1998.
Reality check
These 300 engines cover aircraft BOC Aviation had already ordered, not a new aircraft commitment. The deal locks in the engine supplier for jets whose airframe orders were placed earlier.
Why a leasing company buys engines
On many new aircraft, the engine is chosen separately from the airframe. On the A320neo family, a buyer picks between the CFM LEAP-1A and the Pratt & Whitney GTF. On the 737 MAX there is only one choice, the LEAP-1B.
That makes the A320neo engine decision a real contest. Days earlier at the same show, British Airways chose the rival GTF for its A320neos, while BOC Aviation has committed heavily to the CFM side.
Lessors like BOC are among the largest aircraft buyers in the industry. They own jets and lease them to airlines, so the engine choice shapes an aircraft’s maintenance costs and its value on the used and lease markets for decades.
CFM International is a 50-50 joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran. The company says it has delivered more than 10,000 LEAP engines, which it calls the fastest production ramp in commercial aviation history, and that the LEAP burns up to 15 percent less fuel than the previous CFM56 generation.
One engine, two airframes
The LEAP family is the only engine offered on the Boeing 737 MAX and one of two on the Airbus A320neo. A single order can therefore span both manufacturers’ narrowbodies at once.
The engine order was one of several deals on Farnborough’s opening day, as manufacturers and suppliers cleared a backlog of announcements timed to the show. For BOC Aviation, it secures propulsion for a large slice of a narrowbody fleet that will keep growing well into the 2030s.
Sources and references used for research and fact-checking.