Cargolux 747-8 freighter becomes first to reach 1 million hours on the GEnx engine

Mar 29, 2017: Luxembourg based all cargo airline Cargolux’s 747-8 freighter flies one million hours on GEnx engine and remains GE’s GEnx fleet leader in total operating hours.

The engine type was in service for five and a half years.

With the first delivery of the 747-8F, Cargolux also became the launch customer of the GEnx engine that represents a giant leap forward in propulsion technology, using the latest materials and design processes to reduce weigh and improve performance.

It is also noteworthy that Cargolux has experienced no basic-engine caused in-flight shutdown of the engine since its entry into service.

“One million flight hours on a new engine type is a tremendous achievement, both for GE and Cargolux,” says Onno Pietersma, Cargolux EVP Maintenance & Engineering. “Our confidence in the GEnx has well paid off, even if we had to work around some teething problems with the engine that are perfectly normal for such an innovative design. GE’s support team has been extremely helpful in getting things on track and our 747-8 freighters benefit from the superior performance of this powerplant.”

“The GEnx engine has proven itself to be an outstanding engine in terms of technology and performance,” says Tom Levin, general manager for GE’s GEnx engine programme.

The Cargolux freighters flew record numbers of block hours during 2016 and, as a leading operator of Boeing’s 747-8F, the airline routinely achieves a record-high utilisation of its fleet.