GE Aerospace NYSE: GE executives touted strong demand and operational progress during the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, highlighting sharp order growth, expanding output across commercial and defense programs, and a 2026 outlook calling for another year of double-digit revenue growth, higher earnings, and more than $8 billion in free cash flow.
2025 results: orders surged, profits and cash rose
Chairman and CEO Larry Culp said 2025 was “an outstanding year,” pointing to operational gains and investments aimed at improving time on wing and lowering cost of ownership for customers. In the fourth quarter, the company reported orders up 74% and revenue up 20%, with “double-digit growth in both segments.” Earnings per share increased 19% to $1.57, and free cash flow rose 15%.
For the full year, Culp and CFO Rahul Ghai said GE Aerospace delivered broad-based improvement:
- Orders: up 32%
- Revenue: up 21%
- Operating profit: up $1.8 billion to $9.1 billion (up 25%)
- EPS: up 38% to $6.37
- Free cash flow: up 24% to $7.7 billion, with conversion over 110%
Culp said GE Aerospace’s backlog was roughly $190 billion, up nearly $20 billion over the last year, and credited the company’s FLIGHT DECK operating system for “incremental gains that compounded into meaningful improvements.”
Segment performance: CES driven by services; DPT supported by defense and Avio
In Commercial Engines & Services (CES), fourth-quarter orders rose 76% and revenue increased 24%, led by services revenue up 31%. Ghai said internal shop visit revenue grew 30% on higher volume and increased work scopes, while spare parts sales were up more than 25% due to improved material availability. Equipment revenue rose 7%, with engine deliveries up 40% and LEAP deliveries up 49%.
CES fourth-quarter profit was $2.3 billion, up 5%, while margins declined 420 basis points to 24%, which management attributed to factors including a lower spare engine ratio, higher installed shipments (including GE9X), and higher R&D. For the full year, CES orders grew 35% and profit increased 26% to $8.9 billion, with margins expanding 40 basis points to 26.6%.
In Defense & Propulsion Technologies (DPT), fourth-quarter orders climbed 61%, and Ghai noted defense book-to-bill was above 2. Revenue increased 13%, and profit rose 5% to reflect volume, mix, and pricing, partly offset by investments and inflation. For the full year, DPT profit rose 22% to $1.3 billion, with margins improving 110 basis points to 12.3%. Ghai said DPT backlog reached $21 billion, up nearly $3 billion, and pointed to Propulsion and Additive Technologies revenue growth of 33%, led by higher commercial and military volume at Avio.
Operations and organization: integrating Technology & Operations; expanding MRO capacity
Culp said the company’s Technology and Operations (T&O) team improved supplier coordination, with “material input from our priority suppliers growing over 40% year-over-year” in 2025. To accelerate progress, GE Aerospace is expanding CES to include T&O, to be led by Mohamed Ali, and elevating customer-facing teams led by Jason Tonich, who will report directly to Culp.
Culp also said Russell Stokes will retire in July after 29 years with the company.
On services execution, Culp described efforts to boost shop visit output and reduce turnaround times by shifting from batch to flow production and improving material predictability. He said LEAP, CFM56, and GE90 turnaround times improved more than 10% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, with a 20% improvement at the Wales facility for CFM56. In Celma, the company sustained turnaround times below 80 days, which Culp said enabled the highest LEAP shop visit output of the year.
Given expectations that the LEAP installed base will “roughly triple” between 2024 and 2030, GE Aerospace is investing to expand MRO capacity. Culp said the company is dedicating approximately $500 million of more than $1 billion of MRO investment to LEAP, including expansions in Malaysia, Celma, and Dallas and a new on-wing support facility in Dubai. He said the investments are expected to “roughly double” internal LEAP capacity. The company also added MTU Dallas as its sixth premier MRO partner and said third-party shop visits now represent around 15% of total LEAP shop visits.
Technology and product updates: durability, repairs, and hybrid-electric testing
Management highlighted product improvements aimed at increasing durability and reducing customer costs. Culp said a GEnx fleet leader equipped with an upgraded high-pressure turbine blade achieved more than 4,000 cycles in hot and harsh environments, with time on wing improved by more than 2.5 times. He added that a LEAP-1A durability kit is expected to improve time on wing by more than two times and is now incorporated in all LEAP-1A new engine deliveries and shop visits, with nearly 1,500 kits shipped since certification.
Culp also said GE Aerospace is expanding the LEAP repair catalog to lower cost of ownership and improve turnaround times, noting that LEAP parts certified for repair increased 20% in 2025 and are expected to grow again in 2026.
In addition, Culp said the company recently completed a ground test campaign demonstrating its “first hybrid electric narrow body engine architecture,” describing it as a propulsion milestone that advances the technology from concept to scalable application.
2026 outlook: low double-digit revenue growth; higher profit, EPS, and cash
For 2026, management guided to revenue growth in the low double digits, including commercial services growth in the mid-teens. GE Aerospace expects operating profit of $9.85 billion to $10.25 billion, EPS of $7.10 to $7.40, and free cash flow of $8.0 billion to $8.4 billion, with conversion “well above 100%.”
Ghai said about 85% of the expected EPS improvement will come from higher operating profit, with the remainder from a slightly lower tax rate (below 17%) and a reduced share count, citing 18 million shares from previously completed and announced capital allocation actions. He also said 2026 free cash flow expectations are driven primarily by higher earnings, with working capital and AD&A expected to be a source year-over-year due to slower inventory growth.
On segment guidance, GE Aerospace expects CES profit of $9.6 billion to $9.9 billion and DPT profit of $1.55 billion to $1.65 billion. For CES, Ghai said the company expects LEAP internal shop visits to grow 25% and LEAP deliveries to rise 15%. He also discussed headwinds to CES margins from original equipment growth, continued investment, a lower spare engine ratio, and GE9X shipments.
Addressing analyst questions, Ghai said GE9X losses were “a couple of hundred million” in 2025 and are expected to “double year-over-year” in 2026 as more engines ship. He also said management expects LEAP original equipment to be profitable in 2026, consistent with prior plans.
On the commercial aftermarket, Culp said the company has not seen anything early in the year that “gives us pause” on demand, but emphasized execution depends on spare parts availability and the ability to complete both internal and third-party shop visits. Ghai added that end-of-2025 spare parts delinquency was up 50% versus the end of 2024, and reiterated expectations for spare parts and shop visits to grow at mid-teens rates in 2026.
Management also discussed CFM56 durability and fleet behavior. Culp said retirements in 2025 were about 1.5% of the fleet, similar to 2024, and that 2026 retirements are expected to be around 2%. Ghai said this supports expectations for CFM shop visits in the 2,300 to 2,400 range between 2026 and 2028.
Closing the call, Culp said GE Aerospace remains a “differentiated franchise” with FLIGHT DECK supporting improved performance, and expressed confidence in the company’s 2026 trajectory for customers and shareholders.
About GE Aerospace NYSE: GE
GE Aerospace NYSE: GE is the aerospace business of General Electric, focused on the design, manufacture and support of aircraft engines, integrated propulsion systems and related aftermarket services. The company serves commercial airlines, airframers, business and general aviation operators, and defense customers, providing propulsion solutions for a broad range of aircraft types from single‑aisle airliners to widebody and military platforms.
Its product portfolio includes a family of commercial and military jet engines as well as spare parts, components and systems engineering.
Read More
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider GE Aerospace, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and GE Aerospace wasn't on the list.
While GE Aerospace currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Just getting into the stock market? These 10 simple stocks can help beginning investors build long-term wealth without knowing options, technicals, or other advanced strategies.
Get This Free Report
