Rolls-Royce battles supply chain and tariff hurdles to deliver 40% profit surge

Rolls-Royce has delivered a profit surge of 40% over the last year despite a series of global challenges including tariffs and supply chain constraints that it is still managing.

On February 26, 2026, the UK company announced that its underlying operating profit in 2025 had risen by 40% to around $4.7 billion (£3.5 billion) from $3.2 billion (£2.4 billion) in 2024.

Rolls-Royce said the increase reflected the impact of its “strategic initiatives and commercial optimization”.

Praising Rolls-Royce’s 2023 transformation program to improve performance and profitability, the company CEO, Tufan Erginbilgic, said the ambition “continues with pace and intensity”.

“We are consistently achieving outcomes that were not possible before our transformation. With our new capabilities and mindset, we have navigated challenges from supply chain to tariffs, and delivered a strong performance in 2025, all while we built the foundations for significant growth for years to come,” said Erginbilgic.

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce issued a 2026 guidance outlook of $5.4 to $5.6 billion (£4.0 to 4.2 billion) underlying operating profit in response to its latest financial results.

“Based on our 2026 guidance, we expect to deliver underlying operating profit within the prior mid-term guidance range two years earlier than planned,” added Erginbilgic.

Civil aerospace performance

Within the civil aerospace division, the underlying operating profit was $2.8 billion (£2.1 billion) in 2025, up 41% from 2024 when the figure was $2 billion (£1.5 billion).

“Higher Civil Aerospace operating profit reflected stronger large engine aftermarket performance, contractual margin improvements and spare engine profitability,” said Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce said in 2025 the company delivered 483 engines to aircraft manufacturers including 259 large engines and 224 business jet engines. In 2024, Rolls-Royce delivered 278 large engines and 251 business jet engines signaling a 9% fall in 2025.

The company said this reflected the “impact of industry-wide supply chain issues” and included a “slightly lower number of spare engine deliveries”.

A total of 638 large engines were ordered in 2025 (2024: 494) with the Trent XWB-97 and Trent 7000 the bestselling engines in the year, with 226 and 212 orders, respectively.

MaxAviat / Creative CommonsSignificant new orders came from Riyadh Air, IndiGo, and British airways owners IAG, resulting in an order book increase of 20% to 2,207 engines at the end of December 2025.

Additionally, Rolls-Royce said that its “time on wing program now targets more than a 100% increase in durability across the in-production Trent engines by the end of 2027, with more than half of this improvement now delivered”.

“The increase compared to our previous target of more than 80% is primarily driven by further life extensions for the Trent XWB-84, where we have refined and accelerated our program to extend critical part lives. The life extension program for the Trent XWB-84 will be completed in 2026,” the company added.

As part of the 2026 guidance, the company also said it expects large engine flying hours to grow to 115% to 120% of 2019 levels, alongside 550-600 total deliveries and 1,480-1,550 total shop visits.

In defense, the 2025 underlying operating profit was $933 million (£689 million) compared to $872 million (£644 million) in 2024, representing a 9% increase.

In a further update, Rolls-Royce also announced that certification for the Pearl 10X engine, which powers the Dassault Falcon 10X, is underway.

Dassault Aviation“All engine certification tests successfully completed in 2025 and the on-going finalization of the certification reports for the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is progressing to plan,” said Rolls-Royce.

In a post on LinkedIn, Erginbilgic wrote: “In summary, the growth outlook for our existing businesses is very strong, with growing revenues, profitability and cash flow growth beyond the mid-term. These new opportunities, which we have unlocked through our transformation, further enhance that trajectory. I am proud of what we have achieved as a Rolls-Royce team over the past three years. But we are not done yet.”

Rolls-Royce’s third main division in power systems also saw a 60% rise in underlying operating profit in 2025 from 2024.

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