Describing GE Aerospace’s last year journey Larry described it as an incredible journey. Feeling prouder of what his team accomplished together with their customers and industry partners. Larry felt that GE Aerospace’s launch as a standalone public company was the springboard for a monumental first year for GE Aerospace. During the last year GE Aerospace increased its market cap by approximately $65 billion while delivering strong financial results in 2024, with total orders up 32% to $50.3 billion, revenue increasing by 9% to $38.7 billion, and profit increasing from 27% to $7.6 billion. Along the way, the company achieved significant milestones, including US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification for the updated high-pressure turbine (HPT) hardware for its CFM LEAP engine program* — extending time on wing and delivering more value for our customers.
But Larry feels that the real story beyond the numbers and business achievements, is the passion and commitment of its people. Every day, GE Aerospace’s teams around the world live-up to the company’s purpose to invent the future of flight, lift people up, and bring them home safely. Using FLIGHT DECK, its proprietary lean operating model, the company focused on driving continuous improvement. It is about SQDC – safety, quality, delivery, and cost – always in that order, with safety as the company’s top priority. Larry felt proud of the progress the company had made in the last year and was even more excited for the opportunities ahead of us.
Reminiscing about the GE Aerospace’s launch at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a year earlier, Lary became nostalgic and said that day was more than 100 years in the making. Filled with pride in GE’s history and excitement for its future. GE Aerospace’s launch day was all about the team – its 53,000 employees around the world who are inventing the future of flight for generations to follow. Larry said that he felt honoured to share the podium with several of those employees for the NYSE opening bell that morning, and then flew straight to the company’s headquarters in Evendale, Ohio, to continue the celebrations, joined virtually by global teammates from around the world, from Lynn, Massachusetts, to Bengaluru, India. I will never forget the sense of pride and purpose I felt across the team that day, and still feel to this day.
During the last year GE Aerospace increased its market cap by approximately $65 billion while delivering strong financial results in 2024, with total orders up 32% to $50.3 billion, revenue increasing by 9% to $38.7 billion, and profit increasing from 27% to $7.6 billion
Larry further said that during the last year with so many historic moments for the company, perhaps what stands out for him is the way the GE Aerospace team shined brightest in one of the darkest hours: Hurricane Helene and the devastation it left behind in western North Carolina, affecting GE’s employees and their families in Asheville. However, through the darkness, it was remarkable to see GE team members and the impacted community come together to support one another — providing everything from food and water to portable showers and generators. Even those who had suffered loss were selflessly looking to help others. They represented GE Aerospace at its finest.
Commenting on maintaining GE Aerospace’s top priority and safety culture, Larry said that there are approximately 950,000 people in the sky at any given moment with technology made by GE Aerospace and with its joint venture partners under wing. We think about that every single day at GE Aerospace. We have a tremendous responsibility to our customers and the flying public that each member of the team takes very seriously. Each of us owns safety – at all levels of the organisation, from the shop floor to engineering and sourcing to the leadership team. GE operationalises safety through its Safety Management System and Quality Management System – enabling the company to identify safety risks and actively work to mitigate those risks through root cause and problem-solving. We often say in this industry that when it comes to safety, we never compete. Safety is a team sport and an industry-wide effort. It takes all of us working together and learning from one another, Larry further said.
Commenting on using FLIGHT DECK to improve GE Aerospace’s own operations, its customers and suppliers Larry elaborated that a great example of FLIGHT DECK in action is the work the company has done with its suppliers. At the start of 2024, it realised that 80% of material shortages were tied to 15 priority supplier sites. Using FLIGHT DECK, it brought their best people together with GE’s – deploying more than 550 of its engineering and supply chain resources into the supply base to problem-solve together. As a result, the company increased its material input by 26% across these priority supplier sites from the first half of the year to the second half, and saw a step-change improvement in its priority suppliers meeting their volume commitments from about half in early 2024 to more than 90% today. Ultimately, this has supported significant growth in total engine deliveries across GE Aerospace in support of our customers. While we still have more work to do, this is the power of FLIGHT DECK, Larry said.
GE Aerospace constantly pushes the boundaries of what’s possible for the future of flight — and it’ll continue to do so with safety at the forefront. In addition to the HPT certification, mentioned earlier for the company’s CFM International LEAP engine program, which continues to set new standards for fuel efficiency and reliability in narrowbody aircraft, another great example of its innovative spirit is the Catalyst engine, which also recently received FAA certification
Commenting on the innovation and the progress which the GE Aerospace has made in advancing aviation technology over the past 12 months, Larry said that as the company’s roots go back to Thomas Edison, innovation has always been core to GE Aerospace’s DNA. GE Aerospace constantly pushes the boundaries of what’s possible for the future of flight — and it’ll continue to do so with safety at the forefront. In addition to the HPT certification, mentioned earlier for the company’s CFM International LEAP engine program, which continues to set new standards for fuel efficiency and reliability in narrowbody aircraft, another great example of its innovative spirit is the Catalyst engine, which also recently received FAA certification. This is the first clean-sheet turboprop engine to hit the market in over 50 years, showcasing GE Aerospace’s commitment to developing next-generation propulsion systems.
In defence sector, GE Aerospace achieved successful ramjet ground-level tests that have advanced the goal of hyper-efficient, high-speed, and long-range hypersonic flights, and the company’s engineers are preparing to prove their breakthrough technologies in the skies. The T901 engine has successfully completed initial ground runs on a Black Hawk helicopter, marking a significant step forward in the US Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program.
On the company’s strong research and development (R&D) commitment, Larry elaborated that in 2024, GE Aerospace spent approximately $2.7 billion on R&D (including customer and partner funding), driving breakthroughs in Open Fan engine architecture through the CFM RISE (Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines) program, as well as hybrid electric propulsion, hypersonics, and next-generation adaptive cycle engines, among others.
Larry further elaborated that GE is also making substantial efforts to expand and modernise its manufacturing and maintenance capabilities to better serve its customers and drive innovation. GE Aerospace invested $550 million in its US manufacturing facilities and supply chain last year, and has just announced a $1 billion investment for 2025. GE Aerospace also launched a $1 billion investment for its maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities and capabilities through 2029.
In 2024, GE Aerospace spent approximately $2.7 billion on R&D (including customer and partner funding), driving breakthroughs in Open Fan engine architecture through the CFM RISE (Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines) program, as well as hybrid electric propulsion, hypersonics, and next-generation adaptive cycle engines, among others
Commenting on the outlook for the commercial aviation market, and how is GE Aerospace positioned to capitalise on it, Larry said that GE Aerospace sees strong recovery and growth in commercial aviation, particularly in the narrowbody segment. Its LEAP engine is uniquely set to capitalise on this trend. The company has a substantial backlog and is ramping up production to meet demand. In the widebody market, its GE9X engine for the Boeing 777X is progressing well, and the company is excited about its potential. Overall, GE Aerospace is well positioned across all segments of commercial aviation, from regional jets to the largest widebodies.
Highlighting the GE Aerospace’s increasing focus on new technology innovation to drive greater efficiency in aviation, Larry said that GE Aerospace’s long-term focus on innovation is a key differentiator, and the company has always prioritised better fuel efficiency in its engines to meet its customers’ needs. GE Aerospace’s engineering teams around the world have advanced new technologies to support current engine programs and continue to look at how we can improve our product performance and maintenance. A great example of this is the LEAP engine, which is 15% more fuel efficient than the engine it replaces and for which GE Aerospace recently introduced new high-pressure turbine (HPT) hardware to further improve durability. But GE Aerospace is not stopping there. As the company looks to the future of flight, it is also investing heavily in the development of new technologies. With its CFM RISE program, it is maturing and testing a suite of new engine technologies including Open Fan, compact engine cores, and hybrid electric systems with the goal of creating a future engine that has more than 20% better fuel efficiency than engines today.
*CFM LEAP engines are a product of CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines.
