AAR Corp’s strategy to cross-sell its expanding component services offerings to airframe heavy maintenance customers is in its early stages, but company CEO John Holmes is bullish on its long-term prospects.
“If I think about some of our largest heavy maintenance customers, we could be doing $100 million a year business or more and low single-digit million business on the component side,” he said on the company’s recent fiscal year 2026 fourth-quarter earnings call. “Interestingly, many airlines actually spend more money on component maintenance than they do on airframe heavy maintenance, so the opportunity there is larger....The conversations that we’re having with some of our largest customers are just at the beginning stages.”
AAR, which purchased Triumph Group’s product support business in 2025, has been expanding services, notably component work and parts distribution, that complement its legacy heavy maintenance work. It is also adding to its airframe heavy check footprint, expanding in Oklahoma City and Miami and purchasing Haeco Americas.
The growth is helping AAR win new business and new customers.
“We had a really nice growth quarter in component MRO,” Holmes said. “That came from not opportunities from cross-selling, but just straight up wins in the marketplace.”
He called out the company’s Thailand facility, which focuses on structural repairs such as nacelles and thrust reversers.
AAR saw total fourth-quarter sales increase 23% year over year, with 13% organic growth. Parts Supply jumped 39%, including a 19% increase in the business unit’s new-parts distribution activity.
The company’s Repair, Engineering and Software boosted sales 35% in the quarter, driven by strength in both airframe and component MRO.
Looking ahead, it sees continued strength in fiscal 2027, projecting full-year sales increase in the double digits to low teens. This excludes its legacy commercial programs work, which is being wound down.
“We expect continued strength in our new parts distribution activity within Parts Supply, continued growth in repair, engineering and software as a result of capturing more component work, our facility expansions coming online and growth in our software offering,” Holmes said.
AAR posted $928 million in sales and a GAAP net profit of $51 million last quarter.
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