Aircraft production rate increases, accelerated adoption of inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC), and robust take-up of premium seat motion systems are among the “demand drivers” in commercial aviation that helped catapult Astronics Corporation to record sales and operating income in the third quarter — and why its preliminary guidance for 2027 calls for “double-digit” growth.
The global aerospace, defense and electronics company is, however, paying close attention to macroeconomic trends and supply chain constraints, including a memory module crunch in industry, management confided during the firm’s Q3 earnings conference call.
With memory in high demand with data centers, Astronics is seeing lead times “stretch out” and “some price escalation” for the modules it builds into some of its components, president and CEO Peter Gundermann said.
So far, we’re working with our customers, and we’re finding mutually acceptable ways to move forward and not have that affect us much.
But it is a little bit of a different environment, bringing back some feelings of what the supply chain was like a few years ago when electronics were in short supply, kind of across the board.
It’s more limited now. It’s more narrow, but it is something that we’re watching pretty carefully.
For the three months ended October 3, Astronics posted an operating income of $54 million — or 19.9% of its Q3 revenues of $271.7 million. The East Aurora, New York-headquartered firm’s aerospace segment alone achieved record quarterly sales of $245.5 million and its aerospace backlog grew to $670 million.
Astronics still expects to cross the billion-dollar sales threshold for 2026, and is maintaining its full-year revenue guidance of $1.02 billion to $1.04 billion at the midpoint, which implies growth of 19.5% over 2025.
Management doesn’t have official guidance ready for 2027, but believes the firm is “zeroing in on another year of strong double-digit growth, which we expect to also drive continued strength in our bottom line,” Gundermann said.
While major airframers have slightly reduced their ramps to tackle bottlenecks, the still-robust build rate targets are “certainly” part of Astronics’ plan for double-digit growth in 2027, Gundermann confirmed to analysts during the call.
Astronics has particularly strong linefit standard product content with Boeing. But it also feeds Airbus, including with IFEC solutions, such as the Outside Aircraft Equipment (OAE) and dual-modem MODMAN that support the European airframer’s supplier-furnished HBCplus flex inflight connectivity program — which is seeing fresh interest as Telesat deploys physical infrastructure for its Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network.
Also part of Astronics’ IFEC portfolio is the popular EmPower line of modular in-seat power ports and outlets, which are offered both as standalone products and integrated into many seatback IFE systems for linefit and retrofit projects. Astronics, noted Gundermann, enjoys a very strong position in IFEC and it drives a lot of the firm’s backlog. “We don’t see that weakening at this point.”
The company is also a prominent supplier of seat motion systems to premium aircraft seatmakers, which are seeing significant demand for their recliners and lie-flat suites. Indeed, a premium seat supply shortage, compounded by certification challenges for integrated IFE/seats, continues to be flagged by Airbus and Boeing.
“The high-end seat market is not a market that’s used to producing at the quantities that the world is demanding right now,” Gundermann noted. While Astronics has the capacity to meet current demand for aircraft seat motion systems, it is looking at ways to increase capacity, he said.
The Astronics CEO also cited “increased penetration” of advanced flight-critical electrical power systems for small and medium-sized aircraft and “the ramp that is currently underway in our test business” as favorably impacting Q3 earnings.
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