By Nicholas G. Miller

GE Aerospace raised its full-year outlook and posted higher third-quarter sales and profit as demand for air travel rebounded.

"The environment today feels better than where we were three months ago," said Chief Financial Officer Rahul Ghai in the company's earnings call Tuesday. "The air-traffic growth has stabilized."

Airlines have said air-travel demand is improving after it lagged earlier this year, when economic uncertainty led consumers to pull back. Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines said it's seen a resurgence in travel demand in recent weeks, which the company said it expects to continue through the rest of the year.

GE also said it was seeing pent-up demand for engine maintenance, which it said drove 28% servicing-revenue growth in its commercial division. "Our output has been increasing, but we are still behind on meeting demand," Chief Executive Larry Culp said, adding that aircraft engine-shop visits are still below where they were before the pandemic.

The aviation-technology company reported net income of $2.52 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, or $2.04 a share, up from $1.89 billion, or $1.56 a share.

GE's third-quarter sales rose to $12.18 billion from $9.84 billion, beating Wall Street's expectations of $10.38 billion. Top-line gains were fueled by 27% revenue growth for the company's commercial-engines division and 26% sales growth for its defense-and-propulsion-technologies segment.

GE has previously said its defense division was benefiting from increased global military spending due to intensifying geopolitical conflicts. Defense-engine deliveries were up 83% year over year in the quarter, GE said.

Adjusted earnings were $1.66 a share. Analysts expected $1.46, according to FactSet.

GE raised its full-year adjusted-earnings guidance to $6 to $6.20 a share, up from its previous forecast of $5.60 to $5.80 a share. Analysts see $5.90 a share.

The Evendale, Ohio-based company also now expects high-teens revenue growth for the year after previously guiding for mid-teens growth.

Shares ticked up 2.7% to $310.76 in premarket trading. Through Monday's close, the stock was up 81% this year.

Write to Nicholas G. Miller at nicholas.miller@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 21, 2025 08:54 ET (12:54 GMT)

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