FTAI Aviation Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
July 30, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Aerospace Products delivered strong growth: Q2 revenue rose 78% year over year, adjusted EBITDA increased 51% to $249.7 million, and module production grew 61% to 296 units. FTAI raised its 2026 production target to 1,200 modules and reaffirmed aerospace products EBITDA guidance of $1.05 billion.
  • FTAI Power secured a major anchor customer: The J&F Power Systems joint venture signed a five-year agreement with a U.S. hyperscaler, including a $1.465 billion initial order for 2027 Mod-1 deliveries. Advance and milestone payments are expected to reduce working-capital needs, while management sees additional demand beyond the initial contract.
  • The company is expanding capacity and market reach: Partnerships with GMF AeroAsia in Indonesia and EgyptAir, along with expansions in Rome, Lisbon, and Montreal, are expected to increase production capacity and strengthen FTAI’s regional maintenance network. FTAI also partnered with AEI on 737-800 freighter conversions and is developing LEAP engine capabilities.
  • Aviation leasing guidance was reduced: Management lowered 2026 aviation leasing EBITDA guidance to $475 million as more module production is directed to third-party aerospace customers rather than replenishing FTAI’s leasing fleet. Total 2026 adjusted free cash flow guidance also fell from $915 million to $878 million, partly due to higher Power investment.
  • Shareholder distributions increased: FTAI raised its quarterly dividend for the fourth consecutive quarter, from $0.45 to $0.50 per share, while maintaining a target leverage ratio within its stated range and reporting the first distributions from its 2025 strategic capital vehicle.
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Earnings Conference Call
FTAI Aviation Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the second quarter 2026 FTAI Aviation earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alan Andreini, investor relations. Please go ahead.

Alan Andreini
Alan Andreini
Head of Investor Relations at FTAI Aviation

Thank you, Marvin. I would like to welcome you all to the FTAI Aviation second quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me here today are Joe Adams, our Chief Executive Officer, David Moreno, our President, Nicholas McAleese, our Chief Financial Officer, and Stacy Kuperus is our Chief Operating Officer. We have posted an investor presentation and our press release on our website, which we encourage you to download if you have not already done so. Please note that this call is open to the public in listen-only mode and is being webcast. In addition, we will be discussing some non-GAAP financial measures during the call today, including EBITDA. The reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the earnings supplement.

Alan Andreini
Alan Andreini
Head of Investor Relations at FTAI Aviation

Before I turn the call over to Joe, I would like to point out that certain statements made today will be forward-looking statements, including regarding future earnings. These statements, by their nature, are uncertain and may differ materially from actual results. We encourage you to review the disclaimers in our press release and investor presentation regarding non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking statements, and to review the risk factors contained in our quarterly report filed with the SEC. I would like to turn the call over to Joe.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thank you, Alan. FTAI today operates in three principal businesses: Aerospace Products, Asset Management, and Power, which are each driven by our expertise in aftermarket turbine performance. Each of these three achieved amazing results in Q2, including Aerospace Products increasing production over 60% year-over-year and adding new capacity, bringing our total physical CFM56 module production capacity to 3,000 modules per year, which is enough to achieve our 25% market share objective and produce 100 Mod-1s per annum. FTAI finished investing the 2025 SPV, made a regular and special distribution to investors, and launched the 2026 SPV with a target raise of $6 billion, which will take us, in just 2 short years, to over halfway to our target for Asset Management of $20 billion of AUM.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Power signed an anchor customer for our proprietary Mod-1, with many more expected to follow, which, if it is as successful as we believe it will be, will extend the economic useful life of the CFM56 by decades. Well done to everybody, and a big thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of our 1,500+ employees. The second quarter was a continuation of many of the themes we discussed on our first quarter call. This morning, we'd like to build off those key objectives we laid out and update you on the progress of each. Starting with aerospace products, first, let's discuss market share. Last quarter, we said accelerating market share growth was our top priority for 2026. That's exactly what's playing out.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Our market share grew from 12%-14% this quarter as gains from our production capabilities, parts procurement strategies, and overall maintain repair and exchange, MRE customer adoption continued. We're confident this trend will continue as the market develops and our differentiated approach to engine maintenance delivers time and cost savings to our customers. Second, as the market for CFM56 and V2500 engines matures further, demand for engine solutions from top-tier airlines, even those with in-house engine MRO capabilities, remains very strong. We offer flexibility, customized pricing, and scale that no one else can match. These large programs are very sticky. We made more progress again this quarter. As some of our peers have noted, the CFM56 market is supply-constrained, not demand-constrained. Today, our module production is increasingly directed toward our third-party customers rather than to our own aviation leasing pool.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

This is a deliberate shift in allocation. It reflects the strength of third-party demand, the superior economics of putting our module output to work in customer-facing channels, and our ongoing focus on an asset-light balance sheet. In the second half of the year, we'll continue to prioritize market share and long-term customer relationships over our on-balance sheet assets. Third, production and footprint. We've always talked about expanding production capacity well ahead of growth, and more recently about adding maintenance capabilities east of Rome, Italy. This quarter, we advanced two exciting developments, one in Egypt and one in Indonesia, that bring us closer to our customers, add module production, and diversify our footprint. David will talk more in a few minutes on those.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

On strategic capital, the 2025 SPV is now fully committed from an investment perspective and execution is on plan, with the vehicle completing its first targeted quarterly cash distribution on June 30th. SCI's inaugural asset-backed security or ABS issuance during the quarter also enabled a special distribution to investors in July. We've launched the 2026 SPV, and the vehicle is actively making commitments to acquire aircraft today. Our business plan for SCI has always been to make the vehicle launches programmatic. We're excited to have graduated to the second SPV. We've demonstrated that combining our investment capabilities with our engine maintenance solution creates differentiated outcomes for our partners. This has resonated and resulted in strong support across our investor base. Finally, FTAI Power. The business continues to make great progress towards its commercial launch in the fourth quarter.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

As we announced last week, J&F Power Systems, our joint venture with Jereh Group, signed a master supply agreement with a leading U.S. hyperscaler and an initial purchase order valued at $1.465 billion for 2027 Mod-1 deliveries. We're very proud of our combined teams for their hard work in establishing this great long-term relationship. I'll now hand it over to David to share more details.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Thanks, Joe. First, I'd like to talk about our mindset at FTAI. At our core, FTAI is a company of entrepreneurs. Each of our businesses, Aerospace Products, Strategic Capital, and Power, we are disrupting industries with large addressable markets and deploying capital where it generates the most attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns. We're always thinking ahead to the next challenge, because the next challenge creates the next opportunity. This quarter, we focused not only on execution, but also on continued investment in the foundation for future growth. I'll start with execution. Aerospace Products delivered strong top-line revenue growth of 78% year-over-year and 18% quarter-over-quarter. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $250 million was up 51% year-over-year and up 12% from the $223 million in the first quarter.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

EBITDA margins of 29% were in line with the prior quarter, which is a continued reflection of our decision to prioritize market share and large customer penetration. We expect this to be the trend line going forward, as our scaled production capabilities allow us to bring volumes to markets that others cannot. On the production front, we refurbished 296 CFM56 modules this quarter across our four facilities, an increase of 61% compared to Q2 2025. That brings first half production to 566 modules, which is ahead of our mid-year target. We now expect total module production for 2026 to be 1,200 modules, up from 1,050 we originally projected, reflecting the continued momentum in our shops, as well as the hard work and commitment of our fast-growing team. Joe mentioned that we're in a supply-constrained, not a demand-constrained environment for the CFM56 engine.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

I want to drill down on that a bit. First, the CFM56 population remains very young. Forecasted aircraft and engine retirements remain low, and aircraft lives are being extended. Against that backdrop, we have made a proactive shift to direct our available module production toward third-party customers. Long-term, this is structurally positive for FTAI and for the longevity of the CFM56 business, but it does negatively impact our near-term aviation leasing results. Between prioritizing an asset-light balance sheet with less asset reinvestment and placing a smaller portion of our module production back into our leasing fleet, we now expect 2026 aviation leasing EBITDA to be lower than our most recent guidance. Nicholas will share a revised outlook shortly. This is a further reflection of our strategic evolution from an asset-heavy leasing business to a company focused on advanced urban technology, built to disrupt the world's aviation and power markets.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

We are confident we are allocating our capital and resources to the most value-add markets for our investors with a commitment to creating long-term shareholder value. Against a supply-constrained backdrop, we have spent considerable time and resources over the last 12 months identifying the best maintenance partners worldwide in key regions where adding capacity is both strategic and drives network efficiencies. Today, we are pleased to announce two new strategic shop partnerships, as well as our expansion at our Rome, Lisbon, and Montreal facilities. The first strategic partnership is with GMF AeroAsia in Jakarta, Indonesia. This 250,000 sq ft facility has both 5B and 7B heavy repair capabilities, as well as an engine test cell and over 200 technicians. That facility is majority-owned by Garuda Group, an important FTAI customer, and we look forward to moving large volume of engine work for airline in Southeast Asia to this shop.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

The second is with EgyptAir in Cairo. This facility is over 100,000 sq ft, also has a test cell, and today it's focused on the 7B. We believe labor availability in Cairo is very attractive, and we look forward to building connectivity between the EgyptAir shop and our Rome and Lisbon facilities to further strengthen our Europe and Middle East maintenance network. Staying on the theme of expanding capabilities, we are also developing a new test cell at our quick-turn Europe facility in Rome that will include both CFM56 and LEAP testing capabilities. We've talked about LEAP engine maintenance being an important part of FTAI's future, and this is an intentional investment on our broader LEAP plan. As the LEAP engine matures, we want the infrastructure in place to extend our maintenance model to next-generation engines, and Rome will be an important anchor for that.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

We are also grateful for the strong support of ADR at Fiumicino Airport, a critical partner in the continued growth of our quick-turn facility. Finally, we have been very impressed with our Lisbon team, and we're committed to making them a significant player in Europe. We are adding a 113,000 sq ft facility to our network with the goal of expanding production capacity to over 300 modules per year. On the cargo front, we announced a partnership with AEI, a leader in 737-800 freighter conversion. The combination of FTAI's engine maintenance capabilities and AEI's conversion leadership will deliver customized freighter solution at a scale and at a lower cost. This partnership also reinforces how we think about the CFM56 lifecycle, maximizing value in passenger operation, extending life through cargo, and ultimately redeploying proven turbine technology into mobile power. Next, I'll share a few updates on the strategic capital.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

The 2025 SPV is now fully committed with over 300 aircraft closed or under LOI and has transitioned to harvest mode, making its first regular quarterly distributions on June 30th. We expect distributions to continue every quarter until the vehicle is fully realized in four to five years. Our team continues to focus on capital market transactions that maximize returns by reducing the cost of asset-level debt and optimizing the financing structure to align with portfolio cash flow. One big accomplishment during the quarter was SCI's first ABS issuance, MRE 2026, which consisted of $612 million of bonds and allowed for a special distribution to investors in July. We've officially launched the 2026 SPV and are actively putting aircraft LOI for the vehicle. FTAI will remain a large co-investor in the vehicle with a 15% commitment, and the investment strategy and structure will remain consistent with the 2025 SPV.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Importantly, with all the engine maintenance being performed by FTAI, creating a large competitive advantage. Turning to FTAI Power, this was a landmark quarter for the business. As Joe mentioned, our joint venture with Jereh Group signed a five-year master supply agreement with a U.S. hyperscaler, along with an initial purchase order valued at $1.465 billion. This single order fulfills a key portion of our targeted 2027 Mod-1 deliveries equipment delivered in batches through November 2027 to support customers' rapid power infrastructure build-out. The commercial structure of this agreement is worth highlighting. The order came with a significant advance payment at signing, followed by milestones-based progress payments through production, testing, and commissioning, meaning the customer is funding the production ramp as we go, which meaningfully de-risks our working capital investment in the business. The five-year master agreement is built for expansion.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

It establishes the framework under which the customer can issue additional purchase orders so incremental volume can be added quickly without renegotiating terms. Beyond this agreement, we are in active customer conversations to build further backlog for 2027 and beyond. We won't be providing further commercial updates until agreements are finalized, but the level of inbound interest reinforces our conviction in the market opportunity. Importantly, the Mod-1 is not a stopgap solution. It's a platform we are already evolving. Our technology roadmap includes SCR for emission reductions and combined cycle for efficiency gains, product advancements that position the Mod-1 to compete with grid power on cost and reliability. This is a product built to last for the next two decades, and with an anchor customer signed and a commercial launch on track for the fourth quarter, we're just getting started. I will now hand it to Nicholas.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks, David. The key metric for us is adjusted EBITDA. We continued the year positively with adjusted EBITDA of $291.4 million for the quarter. The $291.4 million EBITDA number was comprised of $249.7 million from our aerospace product segment, $88.2 million from our aviation leasing segment, a -$46.5 million from corporate and other, including intra-segment eliminations and start-up expenses associated with our power initiative. Aerospace products delivered another good quarter with $249.7 million of EBITDA at an overall EBITDA margin of 29%. This was up 12% sequentially from $222.6 million in Q1 2026 and up 51% year-over-year compared to $164.9 million in Q2 2025, reflecting continued momentum from production growth and operating leverage. Turning to aviation leasing, as David mentioned, we continue to evolve our business model to be more asset-light, with SCI now being the home for leased assets.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

This in turn will result in a smaller aviation leasing business in the near term until growth resumes in 2027. The remaining leasing portfolio continues to perform well and generated approximately $88.2 million of EBITDA in the second quarter. This included $5 million of insurance recoveries, $48 million in balance sheet leasing and gains on sale, and $35 million from 2025 SPV management fees and co-investment returns. Our balance sheet continues at a leverage profile in line with our target range of 2.5x to 3x and ended this quarter at 2.7x. During the quarter, we also redeemed at par the $105 million of 8.25% Series C preferred shares outstanding and received a credit rating upgrade from Moody's to Ba1, underscoring our continued balance sheet strength and the success of our transition to an asset-light strategy.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

In the first half of the year, we generated $255 million of adjusted free cash flow, which included funding the final $95 million capital call under our 2025 SCI equity commitment for SCI. For the full year, we are maintaining our target of approximately $1.2 billion of adjusted free cash flow before new growth initiatives. This reflects our decision to reallocate module production to aerospace products over maintaining the engine leasing portfolio, as well as an additional $30 million of R&D investments in FTAI Power to advance new capabilities. These impacts are partially offset by enhanced economies of scale in aerospace products, driving an improved working capital outlook. On new growth initiatives, we are accelerating the Mod-1 production build-out by $150 million following successful engineering testing and robust commercial demand.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

A capital call financing facility for the 2026 SPV will bridge a substantial portion of FTAI's equity co-investment funding into 2027. Inclusive of this, overall, we are updating total adjusted free cash flow for 2026 from $915 million to $878 million. To expand on David's earlier point, as we continue to prioritize an asset-light balance sheet, our aviation leasing EBITDA will naturally decline until SCI's contributions fully kicks in. Given the strong demand we have discussed from third parties for our module production, this has shifted more than expected year-to-date. Therefore, we are revising our 2026 aviation leasing EBITDA to $475 million for the year, and we are reaffirming our 2026 aerospace products EBITDA of $1.05 billion. I would like to discuss 2027 guidance.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

We expect to generate total business segment EBITDA of $2.3 billion broken down as follows: aerospace products of $1.4 billion, aviation leasing of $450 million and power of $450 million. With that, I'll hand it back over to Joe for final remarks.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks, Nicholas. Just as a quick summary, as our aerospace products business continues to benefit from a supply-constrained environment, we make further strides to an asset-light model and FTAI Power advances, we remain confident in both our 2026 and 2027 outlook, including our free cash flow expectations. As a result of this confidence, for the fourth consecutive quarter, we're announcing another increase to our dividend from $0.45 a quarter to $0.50 per share. The dividend will be paid on August 24th to shareholders of record as of August 12th. This marks our 45th dividend as a public company and our 60th consecutive dividend since inception. As we look ahead to the rest of 2026, our focus remains on building and expanding on the durable, scalable, and differentiated platforms that deliver value over the long term.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

The investments we are making across aerospace products, Strategic Capital, and power will continue to strengthen our competitive position, expand our addressable markets, and support sustainable growth for many years to come. With that, I'll turn it back to Alan.

Alan Andreini
Alan Andreini
Head of Investor Relations at FTAI Aviation

Thank you, Joe. Marvin, you may now open the call to Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Kristine Liwag of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Hey, good morning, everyone. Maybe following up on your 2027 outlook and FTAI Power, I was wondering if you'd clarify a few things. You've talked about a $250 million EBITDA for Power in 2027. At the same time, in your supplemental deck, you've talked about an over 100 module deliveries in 2027. If we just do that math, that seems to imply only about $4.5 million in EBITDA per module, which seems to be significantly below the economics that you had provided before. I was wondering, can you clarify whether your 2027 outlook accounts for 100 aeroderivatives, or is this a lower number? How do we reconcile this with the terms of the strategic agreement you've provided with Jereh? Is this an apples-to-apples on 100, or are there changes in units we should think about?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Sure. Happy to do that. Just the first point is the $450 million does not assume 100 units. It's materially less than the 100 assumption. By background, since this is a new business for us, and happily, we have the first signed contract in hand for a material portion of next year's production. We took a look at a range of outcomes possible for 2027 and came up with a range of $450 million-$750 million. What we decided to do, was start with the $450 million at the bottom end of the range where we have the highest conviction and the most visibility, such that as we sign up additional customers and contracts, which we very much expect to do, we hopefully will be raising that number up from $450 million, not decreasing that number.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

The economics we're seeing on the first contract are consistent with our previous expectations. We're very pleased with the outcome to date. Since it is a new startup business for us next year, we wanted to start out on very firm footing.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Great. Joe, just to follow up on that, I want to confirm with the economics for power going forward, is it still about that $1 million-$2.5 million per megawatt for the CFM56 conversions?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Well, you want to take that?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Yep, this is David. Kristine, as you can imagine, it's commercially sensitive. We're not going to be providing exact numbers. We're working through various customers, and that is an important piece. I would just reiterate what Joe said, right? The unit economics, there's not been any change to those unit economics. We're still targeting 100 units for next year. As you know, it's a business we're starting from zero. There are going to be some ramp-up costs, and timing could shift. We just wanted to start off with a number that was the most conservative and then be able to build from there.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Super helpful. If I could ask Nicholas a third one. In aerospace products, you are clearly spending money for capacity to be able to get to your long-term market share target. In terms of margins, can you talk more about what's driving that pressure? Any color on how we think about mix, right now, GE Aerospace has said that they are 40% oversubscribed on service visits this year, 20% spare part delinquency. It seems like that's a fairly robust environment for engine MRO. Even if you were increasing market share, I would've thought that margins could have been maintained. Can you talk about the dynamics there and where you think margins could bottom in this industry for your specific business?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Sure. I'll start with that. As we talked last quarter, a lot of the margin compressions come from mix in that we have a higher percentage today of the heavy shop visits, of more of the full performance restoration, which means you make similar amount of dollars per engine, but you have to invest more to get that. It naturally, mathematically produces a lower outcome. Where we want to get to with customers is where we do everything for the customers, so that they no longer have to do any engine maintenance, CFM56 engine maintenance, on their own. We are inclined to go for, say yes and take market share. We indicated that for what we classified as the near term, which I would say is probably one to two years, we expect margins to be around 30%.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

We can take a look at it as we get out further, and we have increasing market share, increased penetration about whether we take price up, but we're trying to set expectations around 30% for the near term.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

I would add that, look, we're thinking about the business in a long-term environment, right? We're looking over the next decade, and for us, as we mentioned, we're intentionally working with and targeting tier one airlines, right? We see enormous benefits not only for CFM, but other engines, future engines, as well as benefits with fleets. For example, being able to enter into new leaseback transactions. We mentioned it on our previous call, but it's important to reiterate, this for us, scale is very important because it benefits all our businesses, and that's the way that we're thinking about it. 30% margins, it's the margin that we're going to hold. We feel very good about the long-term value add of achieving those margin profiles.

Kristine Liwag
Kristine Liwag
Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Great. Thank you.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Thanks. Good morning, guys. I wanted to ask about aerospace products margins, two questions on that. The first is just a follow-up to Kristine's. When we think about the 500 basis points of margin contraction, I guess, how much of that was due to customer share gains versus heavier work scopes and how SCI as a customer factors into that?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yeah, I think the mathematical example I walked through is helpful in that a lot of it is driven by the percentage of the heavier full performance restoration work that we do. If you take, for example, a 6,000-cycle engine, which we might sell for $6 million, we can make approximately $2.5 million, which is about a 40% margin. If you add to that a 10,000-cycle engine, you sell that for $12 million, let's say we make $3 million on that. When you blend it, if you do one of each, mathematically on one, you're making 40%, on the bigger one, you're making 25%. The average is about 30%. A lot of the most, I would say, of the compression comes from the mix.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

We want to do that because we want, as I said at the beginning, we want the customers to be using all of our engine capabilities. Even though you make less in terms of percent margin, you make more dollars, more dollars is what we're prioritizing.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

No, that makes tons of sense, Joe. Thanks. Maybe as a follow-up to that, you announced Cairo and Jakarta, you guys are busy traveling all around. How do you think about how those two new sites funnel into just whether it's winning new business locally or how do you think about how that helps source engine feedstock as well as spare parts as well?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Hi, Sheila, this is David. I can take that. Yeah. First off, obviously, it increases our production capability. Overall, we're raising production capability capacity from 2,000 to 3,000 modules, which is obviously very important, especially when we're increasing market share introducing power. We're well ahead of what our target, the capacity we need to achieve our 2027 EBITDA, as well as our 100 mod productions. As we mentioned, it's always important for us to build a presence near our customer, right? We did not have a facility east of Rome, that was something that we continued to reiterate. We're very happy with both locations, right? Number one, they have the infrastructure already built out at both. They have world-class facilities. They have capabilities, tooling. They have also a test cell. Number two is they have access to technicians, right?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Both areas have a lot of young talent. Jakarta, for example, has close to 40 million people within the city in the outskirts, and Cairo has over 20 million. We obviously have done this a few times. We have a playbook. We're going to effectively put a lot of throughput through those shops, and they're going to guarantee capacity. That's really the goal. Each of these strategic partnerships has two phases. The first phase is we, again, guarantee throughput, and we get capacity. The second is we want to be a long-term shareholder and be a partner. They're effectively the same exact framework that we've done the other shops, and they're key to getting closer to each of the airlines in those regions, as well as getting closer to the country.

Sheila Kahyaoglu
Sheila Kahyaoglu
Analyst at Jefferies

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes on the line of Josh Sullivan of Jones Trading. Your line is now open.

Josh Sullivan
Josh Sullivan
Analyst at Jones Trading

Hey, good morning. Just as far as the comments on shifting away from the legacy leasing and towards the asset-light model, how should we think of that whole segment as SCI becomes a bigger contributor? Is it still primarily a leasing business next year, or are we going to be calling it something else? Is there any reorg at some point, I guess?

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

Hey, Josh, this is Nicholas. I can take that. As we exit the year, we expect Q4 to be a majority earning stream from the SCI. Going into next year, you can think of it over a majority of SCI earnings will be a majority of aviation leasing earnings will be from the SCI. As we look to potentially resegmentation in next year, effectively, that's how you can think of it, is the three businesses we speak of. Aerospace products, Power, and Strategic Capital, our financial reporting should be reflective of that.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

I've started to refer to it, as you may have noticed, as asset management. That wasn't an accident.

Josh Sullivan
Josh Sullivan
Analyst at Jones Trading

I can imagine it was. Maybe just shifting over to the LEAP test cell for 2028, what timeline could the LEAP enter the whole FTAI ecosystem, say, across an SCI or global facilities? How do we get our hands around the size of that LEAP market potential versus your CFM56V2500 market share comments as they are currently?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yeah, I'll start. Most people expect that the LEAP market will be 2x to 3x the size of the CFM56 market in terms of annual maintenance spend. It's going to be a very, very large market, and we still expect to be in that engine in 2028, 2029, most likely starting with investments through SCI, through the SPVs, which will get us in. We have the engineering know-how. We have the capability. It's a similar construction of that engine. We have licenses, and we will have a test cell. We have a full playbook ready to use at the time we think the economics work out in total.

Josh Sullivan
Josh Sullivan
Analyst at Jones Trading

Great. Thank you for the time.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Brandon Oglenski of Barclays. Your line is now open.

Brandon Oglenski
Brandon Oglenski
Analyst at Barclays

Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could update us on the Power Mod-1 prototype, because it's my understanding that you do have one up and running in Florida. Is that correct? I guess, is it initially meeting your expectations? Obviously, you'd have to customize backlogs. Maybe if you can elaborate on that, please.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Hey, Brandon. This is David. I'll take it. We're very pleased on the Mod-1 testing. It's been going through rigorous testing, and performance has been exceptional. Just to reiterate, we started the majority and completed the majority of the testing first in Montreal, the first five months of the year, and we used our test cell, which for us is a huge advantage, right? Many folks don't have a test cell, let alone have the ability to dedicate a test cell for R&D. That allows us to work through the engineering process very efficiently. Now you're right, the testing has moved to Miami, where we have a gen set, and the unit is up and running, and we're very pleased with the testing thus far. The way I would think about it from here on out is the turbine will just continue to run, right?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

We're building hours, we're building time on the field. That's a very important piece when it comes to being able to talk to customers, is the more hours that we accrue. That's going to continue ongoing from here on out, but we couldn't be happier with the Mod-1. I would also reiterate this, and this is obvious to folks in aviation, but the CFM56 is the most reliable unit ever produced. It's got over one billion hours. We're expecting that to be the most reliable unit on the ground as well. We couldn't be more pleased with the testing thus far.

Brandon Oglenski
Brandon Oglenski
Analyst at Barclays

Thank you, David. Maybe for Nicholas, you guys are targeting 40% production growth next year in core aerospace products. I guess, how much of that do you think you can attribute to the SCI vehicle 2? Are you making any progress with longer-term contracts with airline customers as well? Thank you.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

Yep. Thanks, Brandon. I think I'll take the first question. What we have communicated historically is that the SCI will be about 20% of aerospace products revenue. Going forward, we still expect that's a good range for analysts to model in. Regarding module production, you can basically reflect that it will be in alignment with that as well as revenue.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Yeah. Just on the module production, I think this is an important piece to clarify. We did set out module production targets for next year of 1,700. The way I would think about that is our internal production goals for the shops. Right? I wouldn't necessarily try to do division based on EBITDA. Obviously, the goal is to produce excess modules to be able to continue to ramp the business as well as to be able to use into leasing.

Brandon Oglenski
Brandon Oglenski
Analyst at Barclays

Any development on the longer-term contracts with your airline customers?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Yeah. As we've always mentioned, the product itself is very sticky. We have many customers that effectively we have visibility for their fleet for the next four to five years, where we work through exchanges. Obviously, the timing can shift quarter-to-quarter depending on utilization. We like to effectively give them or transact an engine right before the engine comes due. That's very good for the airline because they're able to use every cycle within the engine. That's always our motto is we want an airline to use every cycle. We have these programs with airlines, and that's exactly what we've been building out, I'd say, for the last five years.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

You might talk about the cargo business opportunity as well.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Yeah. One thing that we did announce was our partnership with AEI on the 737-800 cargo. That's important, because really there's right now a shortage of engines that are fit for cargo. Right? When you think about the operations on passengers and cargo, they're very different. Right? A cargo aircraft could operate, let's say, a fourth of the utilization versus passenger. It's important to build engines that have smaller cycles for that operation. Right? For us, it's great because it allows us to use those engines and be able to maximize the returns for those engines. For cargo customers, it's great because they don't want to effectively overbuild engines and have to, let's say, pay extra, or it would impact the leasing economics. Look, that's always been the goal, was to do the full life cycle.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

We think about it as you start off in passenger, right, that has its own utilization, then moves into cargo, that's got a less utilization, and then ultimately into power, where effectively the engine's either operating base load or it could operate, in theory, backup. It's going to be very little cycles per year. That really allows us different customer types where we can effectively target the engines we're building or remanufacturing for the best mission.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

We expect that roughly we could produce about 20 cargo aircraft a year, which would require 40 engines. That becomes an aerospace products customer base that's really sort of more or less incremental to what we serve today in the passenger side.

Brandon Oglenski
Brandon Oglenski
Analyst at Barclays

Thank you all.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes on the line of Giuliano Bologna of Compass Point. Your line is now open.

Giuliano Bologna
Giuliano Bologna
Analyst at Compass Point

Good morning. Congrats on the results. A couple of questions that I planned on asking were already addressed. I think an important question topic here is, if you can reiterate the value proposition and the long-term opportunity for FTAI Power. Obviously it's a large business that's new, but it has a lot of opportunity, and it could go on for a number of years going forward. I'd love to hear your input there.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Sure, Giuliano, this is David. We think about the power, the Mod-1 value prop, really three points. Number one, speed to power. Number two, scale. And then number three, cost. Right? We want to win on all three. Number one, speed to power. It's having the units available now. Obviously, as you know, it's a very supply-constrained market, it's also being able to install the unit quickly. Right? Our unit is mobile, which means it can be installed in less than two weeks. That's very different than a large frame turbine that takes, let's say, 12 to 18 months as a construction. We have a huge advantage to speed to power. Number two is scale. What's important for our customers is scale. They're looking for gigs of power.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Being able to use our units at scale creates a differentiated product out there versus anyone else. I would say that's fundamentally true to obviously our business, where we have the capacity, we have the feedstock, also for our partner, Jereh, that has the scale, we're working with them to be able to scale both our businesses. For us, we're very comfortable in delivering that. Number three is cost. Right? Cost comes in many different forms when you think about the operating costs for Power, right? It includes, number one, lower maintenance, right? We're going to be, as we mentioned, doing maintenance via exchanges. That's going to dramatically lower how many times the units are out of service. That means you need less redundancy.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

It's going to be lower maintenance cost as well as, naturally, you're going to need less redundancy the units are smaller, and you can stack them up versus, let's say, a very large 300 MW combined cycle turbine. To that, we're going to continue to develop more ways to improve efficiency, right? One thing that we're working on right now is combined cycle efficiency. The engine itself is combined cycle capable. It produces excess heat that can be recycled to produce extra megawatts. We're thinking about that. That's obviously something we have in scope, something that's going to make this entire unit very, very attractive. That's overall how we're thinking about the evolution of the product is we have the Mod-1 today.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Really, the goal here is speed, but we want to continue to develop add-ons and improve the product where it can be the best power turbine out there.

Giuliano Bologna
Giuliano Bologna
Analyst at Compass Point

That's very helpful. Maybe one follow-up on that. A little note that doesn't seem to have been caught or gotten much attention, but in the presentation, you highlight 100+ units for 2027 and growing multiples thereafter. I'd be curious, when you think about multiples, could that double, triple? Is it going to be 200, 300 or more over time? Because that seems highly relevant when we're talking about 2027 potentially being 450-750 and the range of the potential outcomes.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yes, it is clearly not lost on us and Jereh that this is a big opportunity. As David mentioned, this is a continuous improvement business. Unlike aviation, where by law, you're not allowed to change the engine design, in Power, you can, and you can make improvements. Our goal is to make this competitive with any source of power available anywhere. If that is successful, obviously this is a much, much bigger opportunity and also with a tremendous duration to it. There are existing aero-derivatives out there today operating that were engines that were produced 50 years ago. We are keenly focused on that, as is Jereh.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

As David mentioned, scale was something when we thought about this business in the first instance, we sat around and said, "What's the only engine that you could have enough of to really achieve scale?" The answer is there's only one, and it happened to be the one we had focused on as a business, so that was a happy coincidence. It's very much on our minds, and we achieved a lot of the difficult objectives that we had to overcome in the beginning. We're past those, which is very exciting.

Giuliano Bologna
Giuliano Bologna
Analyst at Compass Point

That's very helpful. I appreciate it. I will jump back in with you.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. We'll move on for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Shannon Doherty of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Shannon Doherty
Shannon Doherty
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe for David, do you remain on track to deliver the first power unit in the fourth quarter? Since we're getting close to first delivery, will you be breaking out the P&L for Power, or is it only going to be reported as joint venture income? How do we think about the accounting here?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Yeah, I can take the first one, then pass it to Nicholas for the second. Look, as we mentioned, nothing that we've said right now we're changing. We're still targeting delivery end of this year and then 100 units. Obviously, we did not put guidance for Power this year. I think it's probably conservative to expect deliveries 2027 at this point.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

Shannon, on your second question, you'll see it in next year's P&L in two places. First is when FTAI sells the turbine to the JV. That will be reflective, similar to how we report aerospace products today, which is you'll see revenue and cost of goods sold. The second piece is ultimately when the JV sells it to the customer. As we are an equity stake in that, you'll see an unconsolidated earnings and other income.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

It will all be under the heading of Power.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

That's correct.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

It's all Power as a separate group.

Shannon Doherty
Shannon Doherty
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Great. Thank you. Joe, maybe one for you, just bigger picture here. With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and volatile energy prices, a lot of investors have worried about an increase in retirement rates and a hit to values on old tech narrow bodies. Are you seeing anything here? Maybe moving into the LEAP business is the next natural solution as the global fleet evolves sometime next decade. Any color would be great.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Sure. Obviously, jet fuel has bounced around. It went from $2 to $4 and back to $3. There's a lot of volatility, which everyone is keenly aware of if you're in the aviation business. The customers have limited options to change the mix of the fleet, and the economics of the NGs and CEOs are still very, very attractive for the airlines. What they have been very good at is raising fares a little bit to their own surprise, is that they had pricing power, and they're using it. The answer is we are not seeing any change in mix or fleet decisions by the end user. If you talk, I was at the air show last week, and I think Airbus is telling people they're sold out until 2032. You don't have a lot of ways to change the mix.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

The best answer for the airline industry is raise the fares, and that's what they've done.

Shannon Doherty
Shannon Doherty
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ken Herbert of RBC. Your line is now open.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC

Hi, good morning. Thanks. Maybe Joe or David, can you give an update on the CFM56 PMA blades, how those are performing in the market, and what you're seeing in terms of yields on the production side?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yeah. All I've said to people is that it's performing as expected, and we're not giving a lot of detail on mix or usage at this point.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC

Okay. As you think about sort of broadening the PMA portfolio, are you looking at other opportunities? Maybe just as we tie this in, how could this eventually play a role in supporting FTAI Power as well?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yeah, it's a great use for FTAI Power because, as you know, there's no FAA to certify anything. You can use any part as long as it performs well. Power is a tremendous outcome, and Chromalloy actually, it's become one of their biggest segments, is selling to the power industry. As you know, there's a shortage of single crystal casting capability in the world. It's certainly very much in our repertoire for power. I would say we're always looking at different ways to lower costs. That's kind of our DNA, is to go line item by line item in shop business and try to figure out how to do it better and faster and cheaper. PMA is one alternative. In terms of capital allocation, growth is our number one priority.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

We are looking at additional opportunities in both capacity to overhaul engines, but also repairs and engine piece part manufacturing. We're always looking at different companies. Pacific Aerodynamic is a great example we bought, and now they're gearing up for compressor blade repairs to be in-house and using a proprietary technology. We've got a number of projects underway of a similar vein to continue to just keep driving down costs and building the competitive advantage that we have to keep it moving forward.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC

Great. Thanks, Joe.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yep.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes to the line of Andre Madrid of BTIG. Your line is now open.

Andre Madrid
Andre Madrid
Analyst at BTIG

Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Maybe a pivot back, just to really understand this here. I think we all understand the shift to an asset-light model, but just given the telegraphed nature of this transition, the $100 million leasing EBITDA revision does seem a bit aggressive. I just want to ask, but more importantly, just what changed quarter-to-quarter?

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

I would just say this has been our objective going back several years, two, three years, is to shift our leasing activity over to SCI. Unfortunately, it's not precision driving the way SCI grows, and you have the opportunity to reduce the balance sheet. What happened is, we have SCI ramping up, but we had the opportunity in the second quarter, first half of this year to reduce the leasing on the balance sheet. It didn't exactly, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, sync up. The strategic goal is exactly in line, and it's just happening on the leasing side a little bit ahead of the SCI buildup.

Andre Madrid
Andre Madrid
Analyst at BTIG

Got it. That's helpful. I'll keep it at one. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Myles Walton of Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Thanks. Maybe just a quick follow-up on that. You had $100 million of EBITDA being derived from those assets. The assets moved to AP. Maybe can you just describe where are the economics of moving those assets to AP? Obviously, the AP EBITDA didn't move.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Myles, I can take that. This is David. Yeah. The way that I would think about it is really the change is attributable to two things. Number one is we are prioritizing growing AP market share. Effectively, instead of taking modules and building engines for lease, we're directing all the production capacity to growing aerospace products. Effectively, that translates to lower maintenance CapEx on the engine leasing business, which means we're not replenishing the engines once they run out of green time. We're effectively building for AP versus building to replenish engine leasing. That's the first part. The second part is obviously, on the SCI, as it continues to ramp up, we often are closing aircraft in tranches or in portfolios, and closings can shift quarter-to-quarter. However, these aircraft are all under contract and have economic close dates, which means the economics continue to improve.

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

You're effectively getting the benefit of rental and maintenance reserves. From an investment standpoint, it's positive, but obviously, it's going to shift SCI pickup for the quarter.

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Okay. We will see that economics, it's just shifted into the future quarters. Is that the take, David?

David Moreno
President at FTAI Aviation

Yeah. On the SCI piece, that's correct. I think as Nicholas said, going into the fourth quarter, we expect SCI to be the majority of aircraft leasing. That's going to continue to scale. Look, it's obviously, in a way, we're starting this business and growing this business as well from zero. That's part of the ramp-up period, which is obviously as we scale it, there's going to be less variability in that business.

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Okay. One for Nicholas. I think you said that the SCI-related EBITDA might be proportional with sales, I guess I was thinking of SCI as being a captive customer, one that you don't have to necessarily chase down for market share gains. You pretty much control it. Why is the SCI margin not more consistent with what you were thinking about earlier in the year and last year in the Q4 in terms of 40% as a target?

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

For the SCI, it's never been necessarily about margin targets. It's all about build to suit of what engines we're replacing. As a reminder, there's approximately 300 aircraft, that's 600 engines in the first vehicle. What happens in the exchange nature is what FTAI is rebuilding to is what is needed for the SCI for the remainder of the lease term. If they need an engine with only a year or so, or two years remaining on the lease term, let's say a low cycle build, then we'll build to that. FTAI might get a high margin build on that, similarly, if they need an engine exchange right away within the first year of the vehicle, and we're doing a heavy rebuild for, let's say, a five to six years lease term, those margins will be below that number.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

It's the same mix issue that we talked about with margins for any other third-party customer. SCI is similar to any other large airline. It just happens to be we're the GP, it's similar in nature.

Myles Walton
Myles Walton
Analyst at Wolfe Research

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Yep.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Kauffman of Citizens Bank. Your line is now open.

Jeff Kauffman
Analyst at Citizens Bank

Thank you very much. Congratulations. I have a longer-term question. Thinking about the 2027 EBITDA guidance, you've given us kind of the free cash generation on 2026. Can we imply what that looks like on your 2027 EBITDA, and maybe talk a little bit about how you would like to use that free cash, either shareholders, augment growth, special projects? Just as this free cash begins to grow, talk about the conversion from EBITDA to free cash as EBITDA gets bigger, and then just kind of where you really want to use it.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

Yep. I can take the first part of the question. If you look at FTAI's results in 2025 and how we're projecting on free cash flow in 2026, you can see that our free cash flow conversion is approximately in line with other aerospace peers in that 60%-70% range. It is, of course, a little premature to be giving a detailed number for 2027, given the tremendous amount of growth opportunities we're looking to do next year. However, what I will say is that for FTAI Power, moving into this industry, it is a much higher cash conversion cycle for two reasons. First, it is the industry norm that a lot of customers will do advanced prepayments, and we noted that in our press release for our first customer contract.

Nicholas McAleese
Nicholas McAleese
CFO at FTAI Aviation

The second reason is because of the optionality between aerospace products inventory and what we can place into Power. What that means is as we do efficiencies of scale, you'll see a lot of synergies between the two businesses, and that ultimately means we should optimize inventory further.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

On the capital allocation, our number one priority has been growth, and it will continue to be growth. In that regard, we're always looking at acquisition opportunities for additional maintenance capability and capacity is one, and two, we look at piece part repair and piece part manufacturing opportunities. We've got acquisition opportunities we're always looking at, and we're always evaluating different growth opportunities, and that's the number one priority. We did also increase, I think we've increased the dividend now four straight quarters, $0.05 a quarter. It's been going up. It's now $0.50 or $2 a year. We continue to return capital to shareholders in that manner.

Jeff Kauffman
Analyst at Citizens Bank

Okay. Thanks for squeezing me in. That's my one.

Joe Adams
Joe Adams
CEO at FTAI Aviation

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'll now turn it back to Alan Andreini for closing remarks.

Alan Andreini
Alan Andreini
Head of Investor Relations at FTAI Aviation

Thank you, Marvin, and thank you all for participating in today's conference call. We look forward to updating you again after Q3.

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Alan Andreini
      Alan Andreini
      Head of Investor Relations
    • Joe Adams
      Joe Adams
      CEO
    • Nicholas McAleese
      Nicholas McAleese
      CFO
Analysts
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