Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTTrefis TeamWed, August 5, 2026 at 5:27 PM GMT+2 3 min readImage by Daniel Shapiro from PixabayThe constraint management once pointed to for a fall in shop visit volume now sits inside the growth case, and the raised guidance now rests on working through it.GE Aerospace (GE) once explained a fall in shop visit volume by pointing at parts it could not get. That framing has moved to the back of the story. What management foregrounds now is FLIGHT DECK, its operating improvement program, and the AI layered on top of it. The shortage did not go away, and where it went matters more.FLIGHT DECK Went From Attacking The Shortage To Driving OutputIn earlier quarterly updates, the shortage was the story itself: the company attributed a 3% fall in shop visit volume to material constraints, and cast FLIGHT DECK as the tool it would use against supply chain problems. The same program now appears the other way round, as the reason output is rising, and management credits it with halving the number of demand signals its turbine airfoils team sends suppliers, sharpening supplier focus and roughly doubling how much priority material comes in on time. Supply chain gets far less airtime as a limit and far more as a win.Working Down The Overdue Parts Backlog Is Now The KickerThe constraint has not gone, and the overdue backlog it left behind grew in the second quarter of 2026, as strong orders outran even improving supply. Spare parts delinquencies, which the company defines as shipments delayed by material availability constraints, rose 20% sequentially, and the CEO called that increase unfortunate. Management now treats the overdue backlog as revenue and cash it will collect over the next several years, a kicker rather than a cap. None of this is a rounding error. Commercial Engines & Services, the unit that sells and overhauls the engines, is about two-thirds of the $50.6 billion of revenue over the past twelve months. Separately, on its latest call, management put total commercial services work already committed at roughly $170 billion.Cash Is Strong, But The Margin Drags Run To 2028The business is not soft, though it is slowing: revenue grew 22% over the past twelve months against a 26% three-year average. Free cash flow rose 43% in the second quarter of 2026, with conversion over 140%. Turning earnings into cash at that rate is the kind of quality the Trefis High Quality Portfolio is built on. The strain shows up in margin instead. The first GE9X units are the highest-cost ones the company builds, and LEAP services margins still sit below the overall service margins in Commercial Engines & Services, with both drags expected to turn in 2028.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info