ATSG - ATSG Reports Strong Second Quarter 2022 Results

Delivers 24% Top-line Growth, Driven by Continued Strength in Freighter Leasing

Reaffirms 2022 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance

Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATSG), the leading provider of medium wide-body aircraft leasing, contracted air transportation, and related services, today reported consolidated financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2022.

ATSG's second quarter 2022 results, as compared with the second quarter 2021, include:

Second Quarter 2022 Results

• Revenues of $510 million, up 24%
• GAAP Earnings of $54 million, or $0.73 per share basic, down from $80 million, or $1.17. Second quarter 2021 results included $38 million pretax in government grants representing pandemic relief for ATSG’s passenger airline, $30 million in incremental pretax gains primarily related to warrant revaluations.
• Adjusted Earnings Per Share* of $0.59, versus $0.35 a year ago. Amounts exclude, among other items, government grant and warrant revaluation gains. Results for each year reflect additional shares for a change in GAAP presentation related to convertible notes
• Adjusted Pretax Earnings* of $67 million, up 80%
• Adjusted EBITDA* of $158 million, up 23%
• Operating Cash Flow of $125 million, versus $183 million for the year ago quarter ended June 30. Also, Adjusted Free Cash Flow* of $72 million, versus $123 million for the year ago quarter, reflecting higher customer receivables.

Rich Corrado, president and chief executive officer of ATSG, said, "Leasing converted midsize freighter aircraft and flying them in express-package networks remained a powerful and resilient driver of our strong cash flow in the second quarter. CAM, our aircraft lessor, again fueled our adjusted earnings momentum, with nine more Boeing 767 freighters leased to third-party customers than a year ago. Our cargo airlines continue to fly more hours, using both freighters that CAM owns plus others that customers have assigned to them. Inflation-driven increases in employee costs, contracted labor, crew travel and other costs are affecting our ACMI Services results and we are taking steps to mitigate the impact where we can."

* Adjusted Earnings Per Share, Adjusted Pretax Earnings, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow are non-GAAP financial measures and are defined and reconciled to GAAP measures at the end of this release.

Segment Results

CAM

• External leases of nine more Boeing 767s since June 2021 contributed to CAM’s 24 percent second-quarter revenue gain. CAM also realized more 2022 revenues from new pay-by-cycle engine support services with several lessees of its 767-200 freighters. Aircraft leasing and related revenues from external customers were up 21 percent.
• CAM’s second-quarter pretax earnings increased 76 percent to $39.6 million versus the prior-year quarter. Allocated interest decreased $3 million and depreciation increased $6 million.
• Eighty-nine CAM-owned 767 freighter aircraft were leased to external customers as of June 30, 2022. CAM expects to lease six more freighters in the second half, including four 767s and two Airbus A321-200s.
• CAM purchased five 767-300 and four A321-200 passenger aircraft during the first half for conversion to freighters. One CAM-owned 767-300 passenger aircraft was removed from service with Omni Air and scheduled for freighter conversion. Nineteen CAM-owned aircraft were in or awaiting conversion to freighters as of June 30, 2022, consisting of fourteen 767-300s and five A321s.

ACMI Services

• Second-quarter revenues increased 27 percent to $347 million. Block hours for ATSG's airlines reflected sharply higher passenger flying and the benefit of four more CAM-leased freighters in CMI service than a year ago, plus four more 767 freighters provided by customers for our airlines to operate.
• Second-quarter flight schedules were up from a year ago, particularly for passenger charter operations. Revenue block hours increased nine percent overall, including a 13 percent increase for passenger and combi flying and a 7 percent increase for cargo aircraft.
• Pretax segment earnings decreased $23 million to $22 million for the quarter. Prior-year results included $38 million from government grants awarded to offset pandemic effects on Omni Air’s passenger operations.
• Excluding the government grants, segment earnings more than tripled from a year ago.
• Second-quarter results were affected by additional costs for crew coverage and inflation-driven increases in operating costs, including crew travel, fuel costs for positioning aircraft, and labor costs, including contracted worker costs.

2022 Outlook

ATSG continues to project a record $640 million in Adjusted EBITDA for 2022, up nearly $100 million from 2021. Our 2022 Adjusted EBITDA forecast assumes:

• The addition of ten dry leases of converted freighters for the year, including eight 767-300s and two A321-200 aircraft.
• Seven more 767 freighters that our airlines will operate under CMI arrangements that the aircraft’s owners or lessees have assigned to our airlines.
• Mitigation of some inflation-driven cost increases in ACMI Services and rate increases for military passenger operations beginning in the fourth quarter.
• Full restoration of ATI’s global combi service to all remote U.S. military facilities it served before the pandemic, including a major route scheduled to resume in the fourth quarter.

ATSG has raised its capital spending projection for 2022 by $35 million to $625 million, including $205 million in sustaining capex and $420 million for growth. The increase in growth capex reflects payments in the second half of 2022 to acquire feedstock aircraft previously scheduled to be purchased in 2023. 2022 growth capex will be funded primarily by the strong Adjusted Free Cash Flow ATSG will generate this year.

CAM has completed the first four of its projected eight 767-300 leases this year. ATSG’s cargo airlines continue to add customers’ aircraft to its freighter fleet. Those aircraft, along with expanded peak flying, are expected to boost air delivery revenues and earnings in the second half of the year.

Corrado said that Omni Air’s revenues and flights for the U.S. military remain at high levels and ATSG’s passenger business is expected to deliver solid results in the second half.

“Despite persistent inflation, we expect to reach our financial targets for 2022, as demand for our express-package network assets and flight operations remains high. E-commerce shopping habits, now well ingrained and reinforced by often lower online prices, will continue to drive express-package delivery networks that assure rapid, reliable delivery. That trend, in turn, will drive growth in ATSG’s cash flow through the current economic cycle and beyond," he said.

Corrado noted that ATSG expects to lease a record eighteen freighters in 2023, including fourteen 767s and four A321s.

“The majority of those orders are backed by customer deposits, and nearly all are from existing customers, giving us great confidence about growth in our core leasing returns over the next 18 months,” he said. “Beyond that, we have customer orders for twenty Airbus A330s we will start to acquire and convert next year, with deliveries beginning in 2024. Our existing lease portfolio and order book translate into a compelling growth story for ATSG in the coming years."

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This release, including the attached tables, contains non-GAAP financial measures that management uses to evaluate historical results and project future results. Management believes that these non-GAAP measures assist in highlighting operational trends, facilitating period-over-period comparisons, and providing additional clarity about events and trends affecting core operating performance. Disclosing these non-GAAP measures provides insight to investors about additional metrics that management uses to evaluate past performance and prospects for future performance. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of the Company's results as reported under GAAP. The historical non-GAAP financial measures included in this release are reconciled to GAAP earnings in tables included later in this release. The Company does not provide a reconciliation of projected Adjusted EBITDA because it is unable to predict with reasonable accuracy the value of certain adjustments. Certain adjustments can be significantly impacted by the re-measurements of financial instruments including stock warrants issued to a customer. The Company’s earnings on a GAAP basis and the non-GAAP adjustments for gains and losses resulting from the re-measurement of stock warrants, will depend on the future prices of ATSG stock, interest rates, and other assumptions which are highly uncertain.

Conference Call

ATSG will host an investor conference call on Friday, August 5, 2022, at 10 a.m. Eastern time to review its financial results for the second quarter of 2022. Participants must register in advance to receive a number and PIN to connect by phone, using a link provided on our website, atsginc.com/investors. A separate link will offer access to a live, listen-only webcast of the call. The webcast will remain available for replay via the same site for 30 days.

About ATSG

ATSG is a leading provider of aircraft leasing and air cargo transportation and related services to domestic and foreign air carriers and other companies that outsource their air cargo lift requirements. ATSG, through its leasing and airline subsidiaries, is the world's largest owner and operator of converted Boeing 767 freighter aircraft. Through its principal subsidiaries, including three airlines with separate and distinct U.S. FAA Part 121 Air Carrier certificates, ATSG provides aircraft leasing, air cargo lift, passenger ACMI and charter services, aircraft maintenance services and airport ground services. ATSG's subsidiaries include ABX Air, Inc.; Airborne Global Solutions, Inc.; Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services, Inc., including its subsidiary, Pemco World Air Services, Inc.; Air Transport International, Inc.; Cargo Aircraft Management, Inc.; and Omni Air International, LLC. For more information, please see www.atsginc.com .

Except for historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this release contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause Air Transport Services Group, Inc.'s ("ATSG's") actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (i) the extent to which changes in market conditions impact the number, timing, and scheduled routes of aircraft deployments to new and existing customers; (ii) the cost and timing with respect to which we are able to purchase and modify aircraft to a cargo configuration, which may be impacted by global supply chain disruptions; (iii) our operating airlines' ability to maintain on-time service and control costs; (iv) our ability to remain in compliance with key agreements with customers, lenders and government agencies; (v) persistent elevated rates of inflation and changes in general economic and/or industry-specific conditions such as higher labor costs, increases in interest rates, an economic recession, and downturns in customer business cycles; (vi) the impact arising from COVID-19 outbreaks, including the emergence of COVID-19 variants; (vii) mark-to-market changes on certain financial instruments; and (viii) other factors that are contained from time to time in ATSG's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Readers should carefully review this release and should not place undue reliance on ATSG's forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements were based on information, plans and estimates as of the date of this release. Except as may be required by applicable law, ATSG undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, future events or other changes.

Adjusted Pretax Earnings excludes certain items included in GAAP based pretax earnings (loss) from continuing operations because they are distinctly different in their predictability among periods or not closely related to our operations. Presenting this measure provides investors with a comparative metric of fundamental operations, while highlighting changes to certain items among periods.

Management uses Adjusted EBITDA to assess the performance of its operating results among periods. It is a metric that facilitates the comparison of financial results of underlying operations. Additionally, these non-GAAP adjustments are similar to the adjustments used by lenders in the Company’s senior secured credit facility to assess financial performance and determine the cost of borrowed funds. The adjustments also remove the non-service cost components of retiree benefit plans because they are not closely related to ongoing operating activities. The adjustments also excluded the recognition of government grants from adjusted earnings to improve comparability between periods. Management presents EBITDA from Continuing Operations, a commonly referenced metric, as a subtotal toward computing Adjusted EBITDA.

EBITDA from Continuing Operations is defined as Earnings (Loss) from Continuing Operations Before Income Taxes plus net interest expense, depreciation, and amortization expense. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA from Continuing Operations less financial instrument revaluation gains or losses, non-service components of retiree benefit costs including pension plan settlements, amortization of warrant-based customer incentive costs recorded in revenue, recognition of government grants, charge off of debt issuance costs upon debt restructuring and costs from non-consolidated affiliates.

Sustaining capital expenditures includes cash outflows for planned aircraft maintenance, engine overhauls, information systems and other non-aircraft additions to property and equipment. It does not include expenditures for aircraft acquisitions and related passenger-to-freighter conversion costs.

Cash receipts from government payroll support programs, which are included in operating cash flows, were $0 and $83.0 million for the six month periods ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Cash receipts from government payroll support programs were $0 for the twelve months ended June 30, 2022.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow (non-GAAP) includes cash flow from operations net of expenditures for planned aircraft maintenance, engine overhauls and other non-aircraft additions to property and equipment. Management believes that adjusting GAAP operating cash flows is useful to evaluate the company's ability to generate cash for growth initiatives, debt service, cash returns for shareholders or other discretionary allocations of capital.