GE Aerospace has reported “exceptional” third-quarter results, while raising guidance “across the board” going into the final quarter of 2025.
On Tuesday (October 21), the company reported third-quarter adjusted revenue of $11.3bn — an increase of 26% year over year.
Operating profit came in at $2.3bn for the quarter, also an increase of 26%, while operating profit margin came in at 20.3%, which was flat with the same period last year.
Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $1.66, an increase of 44% year over year, while free cash flow came in at $2.4bn, an increase of 30%.
Lawrence Culp, CEO of GE Aerospace, said the strength of the company’s year-to-date earnings has led it to significantly raise its full-year guidance.
Adjusted revenue growth for full-year 2025 is now expected to land in the “high-teens”, having been raised from the “mid-teens”.
Full-year 2025 operating profit is expected to come in at $8.65 - $8.85bn, raised from $8.2 - $8.5bn, and adjusted EPS is expected to come in at $6.00 - $6.20, raised from $5.60 - $5.80.
Full-year free cash flow is expected to come in at $7.1 - $7.3bn, raised from $6.5 - $6.9bn.
Culp attributed the company’s strong third quarter to “robust” demand and improved output, including a record 40% growth in LEAP deliveries.
“Our continued investments in LEAP durability and the future of flight will help us build on this momentum and position us for growth,” he said.
Among the company’s third-quarter highlights, Korean Air selected the GEnx, GE9X, and LEAP-1B engines to power the largest order in its history, covering 103 Boeing aircraft plus long-term services.
Cathay Pacific also signed an agreement for 28 additional GE9X engines, taking the airline’s total commitment to more than 70.
Culp said GE's improved output was made possible by increased material input from priority suppliers of more than 35% year over year.
This contributed to third-quarter commercial engines and services (CES) revenue growth of 28% and total deliveries growth of 33% year over year.
CES revenue was also driven by improved shop visit revenue and spare parts revenue, which grew 33% and 25% year over year respectively.
Increased LEAP volume led to 30% more internal shop visits and 2x more external shop visits year over year, a trajectory the company expects to continue.
Rahul Ghai, SVP chief financial officer at GE Aerospace, said in an investor conference call that the LEAP global fleet size is expected to triple by 2030.
He added that the GE's third-party LEAP MRO network has also grown threefold, and that GE is introducing new durability measures to ensure that its LEAP engines can stay in service longer.
“All those things give us confidence in the trajectory we have on LEAP,” he said. “We are very confident on getting to CFM56 levels of performance on LEAP-1A and soon on -1B as we look forward to 2028.”
Ghai also noted that worldwide shop visits have still not recovered to 2019 levels, pointing to significant “pent-up demand” that will continue to drive both shop visit revenue and spare part revenue.
He added that the number of engines that are expected to need a shop visit in 2026 is projected to be up double digits, based “purely on the number of cycles they have already flown”.
However, the CFO said the company does not expect its 2025 CES revenue growth to be repeated in 2026. Instead, it expects CES revenue growth to “stabilise” in the double digits, as previously projected.
Across all its product lines, GE has the industry’s largest fleet, with 78,000 engines installed and 2.3bn flight hours.