AerSale Corp Q1 2026 earnings call

Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to AerSale's first quarter 2026 earnings call. Conducting the call today are Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer, and Martin Garmendia, Chief Financial Officer. Before we discuss this quarter's results, we want to remind you that all statements made on this call that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities laws, including statements regarding our current expectations for the business and our financial performance. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are discussed in the Risk Factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, on March 10th, 2026, and its other filings with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements on this call. We'll also refer to non-GAAP measures that we view as important in assessing the performance of our business. A reconciliation of those non-GAAP metrics to the nearest GAAP metric can be found in the earnings presentation materials made available in the Investors section of AerSale's website at ir.aersale.com. After prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Nick Finazzo.

Thank you, Christine, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'll begin with an overview of our first quarter performance and key operational developments. Then discuss how we're progressing against our strategic priorities for 2026. I'll then turn the call over to Martin to walk through the financials in more detail. This quarter, our team stayed focused on executing our strategy across Asset Management and TechOps, prioritizing, one, disciplined acquisition and monetization of flight equipment and used serviceable material, you'll hear me say USM. Two, expanding and optimizing our MRO capabilities. Three, building a recurring and more predictable revenue base through MRO services and leasing while maintaining our high standards for safety, quality, and on-time performance. First quarter revenue was $70.6 million, an increase of 7.4% from the prior year period.

Adjusted EBITDA also increased by $4.2 million or 131.9% to $7.4 million from the prior year period. Excluding flight equipment sales, which tend to be volatile quarter-to-quarter, revenue increased 2.2% year-over-year, reflecting growth in leasing and increased demand across our MRO facilities. This is supported by healthy activity across our core aviation end markets. Customer demand remains supported by high utilization levels and the ongoing need for reliable parts availability and turnaround performance. Leasing demand remained a key driver of performance during the quarter, growing 57.9% compared to the prior year period. We placed an additional Boeing 757 freighter aircraft into service, ending the quarter with three aircraft on lease and one additional aircraft under a letter of intent for lease.

We continue to engage in discussions with potential customers as increased demand for cargo continues to make us bullish on deploying the remaining four 757 freighters we converted in 2026. We also expanded our engine lease portfolio, ending the quarter with 18 engines on lease compared to 16 engines in the prior year period. Higher average lease rates and improved utilization contributed to stronger asset yields across both aircraft and engines and reflect our continued progress towards building a larger and more consistent recurring revenue base. Partially offsetting the increased leasing revenue was a decrease in USM sales resulting from the internal consumption of engine material for our own engine builds.

At present, we have multiple engines in work where most of the material required has come from our own inventory. Our decision to utilize this USM results from our determination that we will achieve a higher value and total dollar margin consuming this material rather than selling as USM piece parts to third parties. Across our TechOps platform, we continue to make progress on several strategic growth initiatives. At our on-airport MRO facility in Millington, Tennessee, we commenced work under a recently awarded long-term multi-line aircraft maintenance agreement for a fleet of CRJ700 and CRJ900 regional jets. In addition, operations began at our expanded aerostructures facility located in Hialeah Gardens, Florida. Both initiatives contributed to higher TechOps revenue in the quarter.

As expected, when ramping up operations at new facilities, we incurred incremental training costs and early-stage operating inefficiencies that created margin pressure during the quarter. We view these impacts as temporary and expect margins and throughput to improve as volumes continue to increase and operations stabilize. TechOps was also impacted by lower MRO part sales in the quarter. Lastly, our Roswell facility experienced revenue and gross profit declines due to fewer aircraft in storage during the quarter. Related to our engineered solutions products, AerSafe continues to remain strong in advance of a Federal Aviation Administration November 2026 compliance deadline for the Fuel Quantity Indicating System Airworthiness Directive related to fuel tank safety systems. We closed the quarter with a backlog of $15.3 million, of which the majority will close in 2026.

In addition, we continue to market our revolutionary enhanced flight vision system, AerAware, to select interested customers. We're also continuing our efforts to educate our U.S. regulators and the agencies responsible for the safety of our air transportation system on how the unique features of AerAware can improve safety and provide economic efficiency to the industry. During the quarter, we deployed $25.1 million in feedstock acquisitions to support future leasing and monetization opportunities. We remain disciplined in our acquisition approach and continue to focus on assets where we see strong long-term demand and attractive risk-adjusted returns.

Our win rate in the quarter was 6.3% compared to 10.4% in the first quarter of 2025, which shows our commitment to discipline on pricing and as we continue to evaluate opportunities to redeploy and monetize inventory in ways that improve velocity and cash conversion without compromising value. Looking ahead, our priorities for the remainder of 2026 remain consistent with those we have previously outlined. These include increasing the number of assets deployed in our lease pool, including the placement of the remaining four 757 freighters during this year, continuing to monetize our inventory through USM sales, filling available capacity across our MRO network, and improving overall operational profitability as recent expansion initiatives continue to gain scale.

Despite the expected startup costs incurred in the first quarter, we remain confident in our ability to deliver improved financial performance as we progress throughout the year. With a strong inventory position, an active leasing pipeline, and expanded operational capabilities, we believe AerSale is well-positioned to deliver more consistent and growing earnings. With that, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Martin Garmendia.

Thanks, Nick. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll walk through additional details on our first quarter financial performance, then touch on cash flow, liquidity, and our outlook for the remainder of 2026. Revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $70.6 million, compared to $65.8 million in the prior year period. Flight equipment sales totaled $5.2 million and consisted of one engine sale, compared to $1.8 million from one engine sold in the first quarter of 2025. Excluding flight equipment sales, revenue increased 2.2% year-over-year, driven by growth in leasing activity, partially offset by lower USM and MRO part sales. As we note each quarter, flight equipment sales can vary meaningfully from period to period.

As a result, we believe performance is best assessed over time with a focus on feedstock acquisition, monetization of those investments, and profitability trends. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7.4 million or 10.4% of revenue, compared to $3.2 million or 4.8% of revenue in the prior-year period. The EBITDA dollar and margin increase was primarily driven by higher leasing revenue and flight equipment sales during the quarter. Asset Management Solutions revenue increased 10% year-over-year to $43.1 million in the first quarter. Excluding flight equipment sales, revenue grew modestly, supported by an expanded lease pool and favorable engine mix, but partially offset by lower USM volumes.

We ended the quarter with 18 engines and three Boeing 757 freighters on lease, compared to 16 engines and one freighter on lease in the prior year period. Technical Operations revenue increased 3.4% year-over-year to $27.5 million, driven primarily by higher on-airport MRO activity. Growth was led by increased activity at our Goodyear and Millington facilities, including the initial ramp-up of CRJ work at Millington. These gains were partially offset by lower MRO parts sales during the quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 26.7% compared to 27.3% in the same period last year.

The modest and temporary decline reflects startup and training costs related to the CRJ lines in Millington and the Aerostructures expansion, as well as higher labor costs at Goodyear as we maintained elevated staffing levels in anticipation of increased demand expected later in the year. We expect these margins to normalize and begin to improve as we increase labor and facility utilization. Selling general administrative expenses were $22.2 million in the first quarter, down from $24.6 million in the prior year period. The decrease reflects the benefits of our ongoing efficiency initiatives and the absence of one-time severance costs incurred last year. Current year expenses included $1.8 million of share-based compensation expense compared to $1.2 million in the prior year.

Net loss for the first quarter was $3.5 million compared to a net loss of $5.3 million in the prior year period. Adjusted net income was approximately breakeven compared to an adjusted net loss of $2.7 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7.4 million compared to $3.2 million in the prior year period, which benefited from a higher margin product mix and lower expenses. Year-to-date cash used in operating activities was $26.7 million, primarily related to feedstock acquisitions of $25.1 million as we continue to make disciplined investments to grow the Asset Management segment. We ended the quarter with inventory of $369.5 million and aircraft and engines held for lease of $121.5 million.

Available liquidity at the end of the quarter was $41.8 million, which included $2.1 million in cash and $39.7 million of availability in our $180 million asset-backed revolver, which can be expanded to $200 million. This available liquidity, growing performance, and our strong inventory position provides us with the tools needed to continue to grow our business through the remainder of 2026 and beyond. In conclusion, we remain focused on monetizing the investments that we have made. In a competitive market, we have built a strong inventory position that will allow us to continue to grow our leasing and USM activities.

The commencement of a multi-line maintenance program at our Millington facility and new work commencing at our expanded Aerostructures facility put us on a positive trajectory to exceed the incremental $50 million revenue expectations for our expansion initiatives. With the expectations that margins will improve as we increase utilization of our additional capacity and start-up initiatives mature. All of this will allow us to continue to grow both our revenue and profitability in a more predictable and recurring revenue quarter-over-quarter. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.