GE Aviation 'Optimistic' After Announcement of Three-Way Corporate Split

Nov. 9—General Electric Co.'s announcement Tuesday morning that it will split into a trio of publicly traded companies will leave GE Aviation focused on jet engines and flight, a company spokesman said.

Asked how the split will affect GE Aviation operations in Dayton and across Southwestern Ohio, a spokesman said: "While It's early in the process, we are optimistic about GE Aviation, which will form the core of the aviation-focused GE of the future."

GE said three businesses — aviation, healthcare and power — will be spun off into separate publicly traded companies.

"When these actions are completed, GE will become an independent, aviation-focused operating company focused on shaping the future of flight," John Slattery, GE Aviation president and chief executive, said on LinkedIn.

"As we look to our future, I continue to be humbled and inspired by GE Aviation's past. I find myself reflecting on our history of innovation ... the first turbojet engine, the world's most powerful engine, powering the world's largest commercial airliner, setting new standards for engine efficiency... the list goes on and on," Slattery also said.

For now, the company is emphasizing four points. — Following the spin-offs, GE will be an aviation-focused company shaping what it called "the future of flight." — The planned changes will take time — the health care segment is expected to separate first in early 2023, with the energy business following in early '24. — There is no anticipated impact to facilities or employees at this time. — Slattery will continue as CEO of GE Aviation.

Evendale-based GE Aviation has hundreds of Dayton-area employees. Joe Krisciunas, electrical power systems president at GE Aviation, told the Dayton Daily News last month that he has 22 engineering jobs open in Vandalia and Dayton, not counting other engineering, manufacturing and assembly openings across the company's Dayton-area footprint. (The company has about 300 employees at the University of Dayton-based EPISCenter alone.)

Based in West Chester Twp. is CFM International, a joint venture of GE and French company Snecma.

Before the pandemic, GE Aviation had a global workforce of about 52,000, about half of them in the United States.

The manufacturer operates four facilities in the Dayton region that had more than 1,500 people before the pandemic tore through the domestic aviation industry last year.

Shares of GE (NYSE: GE) were up 2.14% in mid-afternoon trading Wednesday.

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