Chile’s Sky Airline has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a 12-year ‘Rate Per Flight Hour’ (RPFH) agreement with CFM International (www.cfmaeroengines.com) to support the LEAP-1A engines that will power its new fleet of 21 leased Airbus A320neo aircraft.

The agreement is valued at about $600 million, including spare engines. The leased aircraft are scheduled for delivery between 2018 and 2021. Under the terms of the RPFH maintenance agreement, CFM will provide engine maintenance on a ‘dollar per engine flight hour’ basis.

The LEAP engine family has had an “exceptional entry” into commercial service, with more than 26 customers currently operating over 140 aircraft on four continents.

Overall, the fleet has logged more than 210,000 flight cycles and 430,000 flight hours. LEAP engines are said to give operators a 15% improvement in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions compared to today’s best CFM56 engine (the LEAP’s predecessor), along with dramatic reductions in engine noise.