United Technologies reports $2.5 billion operating profit in the second quarter of 2019, and $4.6 billion for the first half of the year. The strong performance was partially helped by the ongoing Boeing 737 MAX global fleet grounding.
The company’s sales totalled at $19.6 billion in Q2 2019. This marks an 18% growth in comparison to corresponding period in 2018, of which 6% was organic sales growth.
The strong second quarter results were helped by the ongoing Boeing 737 MAX global fleet grounding. Airlines are looking to keep old planes in service longer, which drives an increase in demand for maintenance parts.
“[…] while it’s bad news for that the 737 MAX isn’t flying, it means that some of the older aircraft have to remain in service a little bit longer and that’s also driving some of this volume,” Greg Hayes, United Technologies Chairman and CEO admitted during the company’s Q2 2019 earnings conference call.
However, Hayes also warned investors not to get too excited by saying: “It’s great performance across the business. But it’s not going to repeat at this level in the back half”.
For the first half of 2019, the company disclosed $4.6 billion operating profit, and remains optimistic about the future, raising outlook for the full year.
Hayes also revealed making “significant progress” integrating Rockwell Collins. United Technologies announced plans to acquire it in September 2017. In November 2018, the merger was finally completed, forming new UT’s business unit called Collins Aerospace Systems. In H1 2019, the business unit has generated $2 billion operating profit.
The seperation of Otis and Carrier as independent companies is still expected to be completed in the first half of 2020.