Engine makers are progressing but not out of the woods

The big engine OEMs GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney have been making good progress on solving some of the supply chain issues, but they will remain for months to come. In fact, it will take until the end of this year until the production of structural castings will have recovered from staff shortages. Engine makers are progressing but not out of the woods.

Both General Electric and Raytheon reported their FY22 results today, reporting stronger sales and profits as their defense business units benefit from the war in Ukraine. But also the commercial engine business is doing better than a year ago as air travel has recovered further during 2022. This is reflected in more shop visits for existing engines while demand for new ones remains strong in line with what the airframers are seeing.

Although 2022 was a difficult year on the supply side, the engine makers have actually improved on their difficulties

earlier in the year. GE Aerospace and its French partner Safran delivered 1.136 CFM LEAPs to Airbus (A320neo family), Boeing (MAX), and some to COMAC (C919). This compares to 845 in 2021.
Looking by quarter, deliveries evolved like this over the year: 442 in Q1, 393 in Q2, 101 in Q3, and 324 in Q4. So Q3 was the low point on LEAP deliveries, which forced both Airbus and Boeing to slow down their ramp-up plans for the year. GE also delivered 527 other large commercial engines, most of them GENx for the last batch of Boeing 747-8Fs as well as for 787s. The company won orders for 1.515 LEAPs and 612 other commercial engines compared to 1.457 and 791 respectively in 2021.