GE Sees Record 2012 Jet-Engine Output

Crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel is spurring purchases of the newest, most economical engines even as it crimps airlines’ finances, GE Aviation Chief Executive Officer David Joyce said in a telephone interview ahead of the aerospace’s biggest trade show next week in Paris.

“In this kind of environment it’s almost Darwinian --the best equipment will survive,” said Joyce, whose Evendale, Ohio- based division is the world’s biggest jet-engine maker.

GE engine production for commercial planes will rise about 13 percent to 2,480 in 2012, according to the company, and output including military models will climb 5 percent to a record 3,370. GE Aviation’s order book is “very strong” across all regions, Joyce said.

The aviation unit’s earnings and sales should climb in 2012 as customers increase spending on more-profitable service contracts, Joyce said. GE Aviation had $17.6 billion in sales and $3.3 billion in profit last year, figures that should rise in 2011, the company said in May.