GE Aerospace will invest more than $160M across North Carolina

Driving the news: GE Aerospace's CEO Larry Culp announced the investment Monday on a site visit to the company's plant in Research Triangle Park, where it assembles engines for narrow- and wide-body airplanes.

Zoom in: The RTP facility is expected to receive $20 million in upgrades to increase the number of engines it can assemble there, including more assembly room for its GE9X engine, the company's newest and largest model.

• That comes a year after the RTP facility received $16 million in upgrades.
• Ohio-based GE Aerospace now has more than 350 employees in Durham, according to a company spokesperson, and is currently hiring more workers there.

Zoom out: Elsewhere in North Carolina, the Wilmington plant will get $60 million in upgrades, Asheville will get $48 million and West Jefferson will land $35 million.

What they're saying: Culp told Axios that the back-to-back investments into U.S. plants are driven by a $200 billion backlog in orders that the company has secured in recent years.

• The company has seen an increase in demand for engines, both from commercial airline companies chasing growing demand for air travel, as well as the U.S. military and its allies.

The bottom line: "We know airlines around the world are looking to expand and modernize. That means more new airplanes, which require new engines," Culp said, adding that GE Aerospace has orders to fulfill all the way into the 2030s.

• At the same time, he added, air travel is busier than it's been in years, "which for us means [providing] servicing and support parts."