CompetitorsWide moat
GE Aerospace (GE) — moat facet
Nobody has certified a new large commercial turbofan in forty years; the competition that matters is for the parts inside GE's own engines.
Competition in large commercial propulsion is decided once a decade and settled for thirty years, which makes it unlike almost any other industry in this collection. Between the two highest-volume aircraft in the world there are exactly two engine suppliers: CFM alone on the Boeing 737 MAX, and CFM and Pratt & Whitney on the Airbus A320neo family.
That produces four relationships, only one of which is a straight contest.
The first is not a competitor at all in the conventional sense. Safran Aircraft Engines owns the other half of CFM International, the fifty-fifty non-consolidated joint venture that sells the CFM56 and the LEAP1. It is GE Aerospace's partner on the franchise that produced three quarters of the company's 2025 commercial engine deliveries, and an independent aerospace company with its own shareholders, its own aftermarket interests and its own strategy.
The second is the only head-to-head fight. Pratt & Whitney's geared turbofan competes with the LEAP on the Airbus A320neo family, where CFM holds more than fifty-five per cent2. It is the one large programme where an airline genuinely chooses.
The third is a specialist. Rolls-Royce withdrew from narrowbody engines and concentrated on widebodies, which is a different competitive position on a smaller number of much larger machines — and a strategy with a much narrower base than CFM's.
The fourth is the one that actually threatens the profit. Independent maintenance shops, approved alternative parts manufacturers and dealers in used serviceable material compete for the money in a GE engine's overhaul without ever building an engine. GE Aerospace both fights them and sells to them: it supplies spare parts and licenses maintenance technology to third-party shops3.
The rating is wide and the trajectory stable. The engines on the two aircraft that carry most of the world's passengers come from two suppliers, and the selections that put them there were made a decade or more ago.
Share of new selections decides this rather than installed share, and the only public proxy is the delivery mix: 1,802 LEAP engines of 2,386 commercial engines in 20254.
The competitive set has been the same three engine makers for forty years and no new entrant has certified a large commercial turbofan in that time. What changes at the margin is the parts business — approved alternative parts and used serviceable material mature alongside each fleet — and that pressure is chronic rather than directional.
The competitive set has been the same three companies since the 1980s. Orders growing shows GE winning its share of new aircraft and repair work.
Source: GE Aerospace Q2 2026 earnings release ↗- ReportedSafran Aircraft Engines owns the other half of CFM International, the fifty-fifty non-consolidated joint venture that sells the CFM56 and the LEAP.GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 Business — segment descriptions for Commercial Engines & Services and Defense & Propulsion Technologies, the CFM International 50-50 non-consolidated joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines, the commercial engine platforms (LEAP, CFM56, GEnx, GE9X, CF6, GE90), the defence platforms (F110, F404, F414, T408, T700, T901, LM2500), the Propulsion & Additive Technologies brands, the CFM RISE programme, the customer description including airframers and sole-source positions, and the segment revenue and services shares. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
- Third-party estimatePratt & Whitney's geared turbofan competes with the LEAP on the Airbus A320neo family, where CFM holds more than fifty-five per cent.Aviation and market coverage of GE Aerospace's narrowbody position and delivery ramp - the LEAP as the exclusive powerplant on the Boeing 737 MAX and holding more than 55% of the Airbus A320neo family through the CFM joint venture, the target of about 2,000 LEAP deliveries in 2026, first-half deliveries up 41%, and CFM RISE described as a technology demonstrator rather than a product for sale. — 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedGE Aerospace both fights them and sells to them: it supplies spare parts and licenses maintenance technology to third-party shops.GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Item 1 Business — segment descriptions for Commercial Engines & Services and Defense & Propulsion Technologies, the CFM International 50-50 non-consolidated joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines, the commercial engine platforms (LEAP, CFM56, GEnx, GE9X, CF6, GE90), the defence platforms (F110, F404, F414, T408, T700, T901, LM2500), the Propulsion & Additive Technologies brands, the CFM RISE programme, the customer description including airframers and sole-source positions, and the segment revenue and services shares. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedShare of new selections decides this rather than installed share, and the only public proxy is the delivery mix: 1,802 LEAP engines of 2,386 commercial engines in 2025.GE Aerospace Form 10-K, FY2025 - Segment Operations — Commercial Engines & Services: segment revenue, profit and margin, commercial engine and LEAP unit deliveries, internal shop visit revenue growth, the CES remaining performance obligation, the 2025 engine commitments from Qatar Airways, Emirates, International Airlines Group, ANA Holdings, Malaysia Aviation Group, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific and Pegasus, and commercial departures growth. — FY2025 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗