Mesa Air Group, Inc.

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Mesa Airlines Q1 fiscal year 2023 conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today's call. At that time, to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your touchtone phone. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please connect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Doug Cooper, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Cooper, you may now begin.

Thank you, Christina, and welcome, everyone. to MESA's earnings compass call for its fiscal first quarter 2023 ended December 31st, 2022. On the call with me today are Jonathan Orenstein, MESA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brad Rich, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Michael Lotz, President, and Tork Zubek, Chief Financial Officer, and other members of the management team. Following our prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session for this outside analyst. We also want to remind everyone on the call today that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements that are based on the company's current expectations and are not a guarantee of future performance. There could be significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by the forward-looking statements, including the risk factors discussed in our reports on file with the SEC. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements. In comparing results today, we will be adjusting all periods to exclude special items. Please refer to our fiscal first quarter earnings release, which is available on our website for the reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures. With that, I will turn the call over to Jonathan for his opening remarks. Jonathan?

Thank you, Doug, and thank you, everyone, for being on with us today. We're pleased to be speaking to you again after introducing several major developments at MESA on our fourth quarter call. six weeks ago. As you may know, we had a busy December quarter negotiating and finalizing significant agreements with our airline partners and other key financial parties. We expect these new agreements will substantially enhance our operational performance and both our income statement and balance sheet. Since our last call, we have been working diligently as we prepare to wind down our loss-making operation with American Airlines and transition our CRJ900 flying to United Airlines next month. For the quarter, we had an adjusted net loss of $4.3 million on revenue of $147.2 million. While traffic remains strong and our pilot pipeline has improved significantly, capacity remains constrained as we catch up with unprecedented attrition experience as a result of the industry-wide pilot shortage. Here's a quick overview of what we have recently accomplished. First and foremost, we eliminated our loss-making operation at American Airlines effective April 3rd, 2023. Pursuant to that wind down, United agreed to add up to 40 CRJ900s previously operated for American. To improve our balance sheet, we sold our remaining eight CRJ550s and agreed to sell down 11 CRJ900s and 30 GE engines, reducing approximately $90 million of debt and generating approximately $70 million of cash. Additionally, United replaced our $16 million balance on our revolving credit line and provided an additional $25 million loan. We also restructured our RASPRO leases and EDC debt. Finally, we implemented new pay scales with our pilots and a new agreement with our flight attendants. Looking forward, the current quarter is all about a successful transition. Working closely with United, we intend to keep all the related crew domiciles and maintenance bases open. With our significant focus on operations, we believe the new United 900 flying will perform at levels similar to our existing EJET flying at United. In some good news on the pilot front, we continue to see strong levels of applications and reduced attrition. Currently, our monthly pilot attrition declined and is now stabilized approximately near pre-COVID levels. This week, we announced a direct entry captain position for qualified candidates. Highlights of the program include a 24-month float to United Airlines and an industry-leading $110,000 sign-on bonus. Combined with our industry-leading pay rates, we believe this may be the best opportunity in the history of regional aviation for pilots to advance their careers. We are continuing to focus on pilot training throughput and have increased our resources around it. Brad will get into more detail on this later on. Last fall, we officially launched our Mesa pilot development, or MPD program, and recently welcomed our first graduates to the Mesa regional pilot ranks. With our significantly increased pay scale and participation in United's AVA program, as well as our expanding training pipeline provided by MPD program and our new direct entry captain program, We believe MACE provides a reliable and rapid path for pilots to join the regional industry and transition to United Airlines. We are pleased to be within the United ecosystem and are committed to training, retaining, and promoting pilots through to United. I'm also pleased to announce that we are adding a 737-800 freighter to our DHL operation. We have taken delivery of the aircraft and expect it to enter service in March. This brings our total cargo fleet to three 737-400s and one next-gen 737-800. At this point, I'd like to turn to highlights from the past few months that speak to the leadership position that MESA is building in the future of regional aviation and the greater sustainability that we hope to help enable the industry in years ahead. The two electric flight partnerships we invested in with United, Archer, and ARC recently achieved significant milestones. Archer unveiled its new five-seat eVTOL, titled Midnight, in November. Midnight is set to provide a sustainable form of aviation that can service short-distance trips between regional airports and city centers. HART Aerospace also continued to make progress, meeting a number of milestones and garnering additional commercial aircraft orders. We believe MACE is the vanguard of innovation in eco-friendly electric aviation and will continue to assess opportunities going forward. Meanwhile, our European joint venture, Flight, is on track to complete its operating certificate this spring. While it initially operated regional jets, we believe Flight could also be a platform for us to expand new technology and eco-friendly flying in environmentally sensitive European markets. With that, I will hand it over to Brad Rich to go over more of the details of our operational performance this quarter.

Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon to everyone. I'd like to start by reviewing our quarterly operating results. In the December quarter, we flew 50,940 block hours, 9.6% below last quarter, roughly in line with our previous forecast. Our March quarter block hours are projected to be roughly flat versus the December quarter. Mesa, like many regional airlines, continues to contend with the challenges of the industry-wide pilot shortage on our block hour production. However, we finally have a line of sight to relief. As Jonathan mentioned, attrition has come down materially over the past few months and our classes are filled with a combination of new hires and captain upgrades. Pilot production remains our highest priority. We continue to increase our in-house training capacity from the additional CRJ and EJET instructors that we have hired. We have also contracted with CAE to provide both instructors and more sim capacity this year. We remain focused on our transition to United and are continuing to work closely with their teams to prepare facilities, crews, and maintenance efforts for CRJ900 flying. The rollout that we outlined on last quarter's call remains unchanged. We expect to operate our current 24 lines of flying with American through February 28th before reducing flights throughout March and ceasing American operations on April 3rd. We will begin operating CRJ900s for United on March 3rd and will transition all the flying by May. As previously mentioned, United is covering the expenses to reconfigure and rebrand the CRJ900 aircraft. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Tork to walk through our financial performance. Thank you, Brad.

I'll take this opportunity now to review our financial performance and our balance sheet. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, revenue was $147.2 million, relatively flat compared to $147.8 million in Q1 2022. Contract revenue fell by $8.4 million year over year, driven primarily by lower block hours, partially offset by increased block-hour revenue for new pilot pay scales. Pass-through and other revenue increased by $7.9 million, primarily due to EJET maintenance pass-through revenue and deferred revenue. MESA's Q1 2023 results include, per GAAP, the recognition of $5.3 million in previously deferred revenue versus the recognition of $4.2 million in Q1 2022. The remaining deferred revenue balance of $18.8 million will be recognized as flights are completed over the remaining terms of the contracts. On the expense side, Mesa's overall operating expenses for Q1 2023 were $144.7 million, down $7 million versus Q1 2022. This decrease was driven by a lower maintenance expense, which fell $10.7 million, or 18.1% versus Q1 2022, to $48.3 million. was primarily due to fewer seat checks than in the first quarter last year, as well as lower aircraft rent, which fell by $5.5 million, and depreciation and amortization expense, which fell by $5.8 million. The decline in depreciation and amortization expense is primarily due to reduced asset values as a result of assets held for sale and year-end impairment. These factors were partially offset by higher flight operations expense of $10.7 million, due to increased training costs and the implementation of higher pilot pay scales, as well as $3.7 million in intangible asset impairment. On the bottom line, we reported a net loss of $9.1 million or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $14.3 million or $0.40 per diluted share for Q1 2022. On an adjusted basis, Mesa reported a loss of $4.3 million or $0.12 per share, compared to a net loss of $9.3 million or $0.26 cents per share a year ago. The adjusted loss of Q1 2023 excludes a $3.7 million impairment loss and another $1.7 million mark-to-market non-cash loss on our investments in equity securities. Adjusted results from Q1 2022 excluded a $6.5 million mark-to-mark non-cash loss on our investments in equity securities. Next, let me turn to cash and liquidity. Cash for the quarter, excluding restricted cash, decreased by $1.6 million from the prior quarter, ending September 30 of 2022 at $56.1 million, in line with the projection on our fourth quarter call. This amount excludes net proceeds from the sales that were not closed as of December period end, including our eight CRJ 550s, 11 900s, and the spare engines that John reviewed at the top of the call. Total debt at the end of the quarter was $701.3 million, up $86 million from the prior quarter. This amount includes $64.2 million corresponding to the GAAP reclassification from our operating lease to finance lease on 15 CRJ900. Additionally, we borrowed $25.5 million in the form of a term loan from United, of which $15 million is forgivable upon the meeting of certain performance criteria. During the quarter, we also made scheduled debt payments of $17.5 million, and financed lease payments of $3.5 million. As a reminder, we have $74 million of scheduled principal payment remaining in 2023, and after the repayment of debt associated with asset sales, we expect fiscal year 2023 year-end debt of approximately $535 million. This updated total from $435 million that we were expecting as of last quarter's call primarily reflects the net impact of reclassification of the RAS Corp operating lease to a financed lease. With regard to fiscal full year 2023, given the ongoing major developments at Mesa, we will not be providing specific financial guidance at this time, other than the block hours for the March quarter that was discussed by Brad earlier, and the total debt figure that I just mentioned. We would like to point out that this quarter had favorable adjustments of $7 million. Based on our transition with American, we expect our deferred revenue to decrease by $11 million next quarter. Additionally, given United's equity stake in MESA is 10%, our current share count is approximately $40 million. With that, I'd like to now turn it back over to Jonathan for closing remarks.

Thank you, Tork. In summary, our first fiscal quarter of 2023 was a critically important one for MESA and one in which we believe we achieved a lot and made significant progress. That said, we have a lot of work ahead of us. We continue to focus on pile development in order to increase our block-hour production first and foremost. At this point, please open up for additional questions that the analysts may have.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 on your phone and be sure that your line is unmuted. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1. Our first question today comes from Savi Saith with Raymond James. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. I'm wondering with this December quarter, you know, you talked about losing about 5 million a month on the American contract. And in light of that, it seems like the earnings result is pretty good. Is that a function of some of that deferred revenue showing up? Or if, you know, if this trend holds, why shouldn't we expect kind of profitability by, kind of the June quarter.

Hey, Savi, this is Tork. Yeah, we recognized a fair amount of deferred revenue just given the change in the contract term with American Airlines. That's the biggest change in the quarter.

Okay, so kind of going forward, I should kind of consider the underlying X stat as the base going forward. um not quite clear savvy could you receive yeah so so just adjust for the i guess as we think about the core united earnings power here should we think about it as you know take out the revenue recognition maybe take out you know 50 million in losses that will go away and and that's your core until you start building up your block hours is that how we should think about it uh

Yeah, yes. We have some tail with American Airlines expenses that aren't covered for the next upcoming quarter. But yeah, if you defer or eliminate the deferred revenue, then yeah, that would be close to what we would expect moving forward.

Got it. And then if I might, on the pilot side, which is kind of good news, if kind of the attrition levels here hold at close to pre-pandemic levels, How long, given your kind of increased training throughput, how long do you think it will take to then be able to fly the full complement that you want to fly?

This is Jonathan. It's really dependent on, to some degree, the mix of aircraft. We are moving CRJs over, but, I mean, I think our preference and United's preference would be to fly as many of the 175s as we can. And so we've got sort of two training pipelines going. I would suggest, depending on what you call maximum utilization, for example, if we could fly 11 and a half hours, we'd probably be at the outside, you know, call it, you know, it could be as long as 18 months, and that would be conservative. However, you know, in spite of the fact that we'd like to fly as much as possible, sometimes network is just not capable of getting that much time on every airplane. So, you know, if we were around 10 hours, you know, it could be, you know, probably 12 months. You know, maybe a little better than that, you know, based on the current trends. But I do have to warn everyone. I mean, these trends are very volatile. And, you know, we got a good jump with what we did in terms of the pay rates and some of the programs we put in place. We've got, you know, a really strong development program now with Mesa pilot development. But as you know, one of the problems that has been created by this legislation is has been the fact that we've had, you know, this big attrition throughout the regional industry, and we're just running out of people to upgrade to captain. And that is becoming an overwhelming issue where, you know, you're going to end up with, you know, trying to get people to 1,000 hours and get them to upgrade and not immediately get hired away by another carrier. Now, you know, with the ABA program in place and with our pay structure, we think we will address that to some degree. But there is definitely still a big logjam on the FOs that has been, again, another, you know, unforeseen consequence of this, you know, ill-conceived and ill-advised legislation.

Makes sense. That's helpful. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Helene Becker with Cal. Please, your line is open.

Thanks very much. Operator. And thanks for the time everybody this afternoon. So just a couple of questions. And these are just kind of clarifying questions Torque. On the investment loss in the quarter. Can you just mention what that's related to. I mean it was a big improvement from September to December. And I'm just wondering how I should think about that from December to March.

Yeah, so, Helene, this is one that, you know, I have been involved in so I can answer quickly. If you want to be able to judge whether we're going to have investment gain or loss, you just can look at the price of Archer because that's really all it amounts to is just the price of Archer. We are currently long, as part of our deal, about 2.2 million shares of Archer. We have more coming down the road. But that really, and Tor, correct me, but I think that really is the entire mark to market is on Archer stock. Yes, that is.

Okay. And then my other question is just, again, a clarification question. And it's kind of what Savi asked, I think, just differently. As we think about the wind down of American, how am I thinking about, the block hour, the revenue components. Is the increase that we saw from $10 million to $18 million because that's where the United reimbursements are showing up related to the pilots and the decrease from $137 to $128 is related to the block hour decline? I don't mean to be stupid, but obviously I'm not getting it.

Yeah, so Elaine, yeah, our block hours were down about 41% from the year-over-year piece. And so, but, you know, our revenue was roughly flat. That's because we did get, you know, increase in, for pilot pay from United as well as, you know, we had the, you know, deferred revenue that we recognize in the quarter. Those are the two big pieces that made the overall revenue about flat with last year. Does that help? Moving forward, obviously, there's not a lot of deferred revenue to recognize. There'll be some that we'll recognize in other quarters, but moving forward, we'll have compensation for the new pilot rates, but in this next quarter, we also we still have the American wind down that we aren't getting fully compensated for pilots in that, just so you're aware.

Okay. That's very helpful. Thanks very much.

You bet, Helene.

Our next question comes from Andrew Dodora with Bank of America. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Hey, everyone. Good afternoon. Similar line of questioning to the revenues, but on the cost line. When we take a look at kind of cost per block hour in the quarter, it seems like kind of reset around, you know, $1,100 per block hour, I think 20% step up from where you were kind of trending in the back half of last year. Is this a good sort of run rate going forward, any one-timers in that number? I'm just trying to think of a baseline here given the new pilot pay, and I know a lot more training costs.

Hey, this is Mike Lotz. Hi, Andrew. I think the $1,100 is the only thing that will change down the road from that is that we are on the maintenance side probably a little lower than we would be on a normal run rate just because of the timing. We hit a peak last year and we're on the lower side of that. And then offsetting that, I think, is the pilot cost because we have so many pilots in training and you know we're hoping that that you know the attrition kind of levels out and we catch up then the pilot per block hour would start to come down certainly not to where it used to be because of the pay scale difference but those are the i think the two items that that we need to continue to look at okay got it um let me

Jonathan, what is the risk that the CRJ flying for United just gets pushed out a little bit just in terms of like who's doing the retrofits for the planes? You know, is the space already locked in for this type of work? Just curious what you think the risk is there.

Thanks. You know, I think it's a fair question. I mean, it took a little time for us to come up with a LOPA that would work for everyone. We went back and forth a few times just to try to keep it as simple as possible, but I think we're able to do that. Now my understanding is the conversion – well, now the – excuse me, I take that back. There had been some discussion about changing the seats, but now we – you know, the position that we had always recommended was that we just have them remain at 76 seats. And so there won't be a change there. We're sprucing up the cabins. We're taking out – Brad, why don't you go?

Look, we don't expect any real delays or issues with the fleet itself. We've got a good transition plan. The plan's being executed. It involves, as Jonathan said, some refreshing of the cabin in some cases, not extensive, but I just call them more refreshes, and then exterior paint. We've got all that lined out and scheduled, and I don't expect any delays relative to the fleet.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say, and I think understandably, that obviously both United and Mesa, we're taking a reasonably cautious approach. We're not going to just throw 38 airplanes into service. I think we're going to just schedule them in over time and just make sure that everything goes smoothly. And so far, the schedules that we've been receiving have been excellent. They've been very productive. It's going to keep all of our pilots in place. We do plan on opening up a new base in Denver, which is going to be very popular with our crews. And so, you know, we think the transition will, you know, will go well. And, again, the biggest variable, and I hate to keep saying this, but it's just it's not going to be equipment. It's not going to be, you know, our maintenance capability. It really boils down to pilots and, you know, attrition and our ability to continue to put out, you know, a good number of pilots through our training program. which we have worked really hard on expanding. And I think we've done a decent job, and we're starting to see some of those results.

Got it. Thank you.

This question comes from Michael Lindenberg with Deutsche Bank. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Oh, yeah. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Jonathan, just the 38 CRJ 900s, How do we think about them sort of longer term? Are they more of a stopgap measure once you start to staff up the Embraers that are currently parked? Like if we were to fast forward two or three years from now, is it 38 CRJ-900s or is it maybe a dozen? Is it 20 or is it going to be a core fleet? I'm just sort of thinking about it within the context of, you know, some of the restrictions out there within, you know, your partner's contracts, etc.,

Yeah, no, obviously, what will come into play here is the scope restrictions. And, you know, just to be clear, I mean, we are well within the scope, we're not going to, you know, that's not not going to be an issue, obviously. But, you know, with that, I think the ultimate goal would be to us to operate, you know, all 80 of our, our ejects. So from that standpoint, there may not be room for for 900. Now, That being said, there are a lot of other operators that may or may not be able to operate, you know, the 76-seat aircraft that they have. There may be a way to consolidate a lot of the flying onto fewer shells. So I think that, you know, the 900s may go to 70 seats and, you know, fill in. So I think the idea, and, you know, and I feel pretty confident, you know, I would agree on this, is, you know, we have training capabilities. and we've got almost 300 pilots flying the 900s. We're not going to just turn around and tell them we don't need them anymore. I'm pretty sure we'll figure out a way to keep everybody fully utilized. It's going to take a while for the industry to recover from this, and so I think there'll be room for those airplanes for a while. And I say for a while. I'm not saying for 10 years, but I would think that we'd be operating the airplanes two years down the road. I don't think that I don't think everyone will recover by then, and we'll still have room for those aircraft within the existing scope.

Jonathan, on that mark, is it still true that the CRJ-900s are potentially the lowest-cost 76-seaters in the market today? Those costs, as I recall, you really had a pretty meaningful advantage there historically. With the new pay rates, is that still the case? And what is the differential between in costs between maybe the E175 with 76 seats and the CRJ900 with 76 seats, you know, with the new LOPA? Is it a 10% better advantage on a block hour basis, 20%? Any color on that? Because as I recall, that was one of the unique competitive advantages of that shell.

Yeah. Well, look, the benefit on the 900s is clearly on fuel burn. It's about 8% more fuel effective, right? However, you know, when you look at regional aircraft, and it's just so outsized that you have to take it into account, it really depends on where you are on your engines and what aircraft. I mean, you can normalize your engines, but the fact of the matter is, you know, there's probably aircraft out there that, you know, will come to an LLP event, which is a, you know, almost $5 million event, and it just will never be done. And so, you know, if you take that expense out, over the lifetime of the aircraft, that makes whatever aircraft it is is going to be very inexpensive. So everything really revolves around engine management and how you look at, you know, owning engines or, you know, leasing engines. You know, we had been five years ago, when I look back and, you know, clearly, given where we are, I don't think anyone would argue that we haven't made mistakes. But the one thing that we did do was make a lot of investment in engines. And we just realized that these engines would be strong assets, and we went out and literally started buying every engine we could get a hold of, used, new, it didn't matter. I mean, and we had, you know, 51 extra engines, and we just sold 30 to United, and, you know, we'll net somewhere between $50 and $60 million net of the debt. And, you know, we still have another 21 engines that we own. So, I mean, I think that it really revolves around where you are in the engine cycle. But, you know, pound for pound, the 900 is definitely a more fuel-efficient, faster, lower-cost alternative than an Embraer 175. Now, that being said, you know, on a shorter-haul flight, it doesn't make as much of a difference. And, you know, there is no doubt that the benefits of the cabin on the 175 is obviously very attractive. you know, the major carriers have no problems putting 175 into, you know, very highly traveled business routes, you know, shuttle markets, for example, that I don't think they would put a CRJ into. So, you know, there is offsetting benefits that, you know, inure to the 175 in terms of passenger comfort acceptance and, you know, the satisfaction.

Can, on that just last point, if I could just sneak in one more about capability, as I recall, that at least the CRJ700s, the capability that they had to go into some of the ski destinations, which is obviously a very important market for United. Can the CRJ900s go into those same ski, you know, the mountain destinations in, you know, whether it's Aspen, for example, the ones where it would, I don't think you can fly an E175 into Aspen fully loaded. I could be wrong on that. Do the CRJ900s have that same capability or are they just too heavy versus the 700s?

Well, you're right about the 175. There have been, you know, ongoing discussions regarding the 900s in terms of their capability, you know, depending on who you ask. But I think our view here is that in all probability the 900 would not work in, you know, places like Aspen or Telluride. Okay. It just probably would not work.

Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Thanks for the time.

Sure. Thank you.

Just a reminder to please press star one if you have a question at this time. Our next question comes from Savi Seith with Raymond James again. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks for the follow-up. I just wanted to kind of come back to that cargo announcement that you made that you have one more aircraft that you'll be flying there. I think previously you had three aircraft, but maybe the third was kind of a backup aircraft. If you can just provide an update on that. you know, what you think cargo block hours are going to be doing and how that program is progressing?

Yeah. So on the third aircraft, it's a 737-400. We haven't been particularly pleased with the aircraft and have had ongoing conversations with DHL to potentially replace that aircraft, you know, maybe, you know, with a newer 800. And we're adding this 800, which I personally feel that it really puts us in a sweet spot with DHL. I was just on the phone with them today. They've been very complimentary about our operation. They actually made a comment about how, you know, our people have really worked well with their people, and it was just good to hear that there will be opportunity. You know, that being said, it's obviously taken a long time, and we've been patient. And, you know, given the downturn recently in cargo activity, It's probably going to be a little bit slower than we'd hoped for, but we are going to add the fourth airplane. We'll look to figure out what we're going to do with 708, which is the third 737, which came into service. But that aircraft was, in fact, flying a full line. So we will now move from three full lines of flying to four full lines of flying. And, Brad, correct me if I'm wrong, but they do between like 100 and 120 hours a month, you know, about 100, 120 hours a month in utilization. So you can, you know, work the math from that.

That's super helpful. And is that, so is it still kind of a mildly profitable business, would you say, or is it kind of still, you need more scale to really drive profits there?

No, I, you know, we were, we were fortunate that, you know, like, like the other major carriers, DHL appreciated the fact that, you know, things have been difficult. And so, we've made the transaction structured so that, you know, our feeling is on a run rate basis, you know, going forward, you know, we've been at break, you know, no worse than break even. And again, you know, we put a lot of money into the operation to start. So obviously we have a way to go to recoup our investment. But, you know, we now in the 737 business, we have a nice cargo business. And I think that over time, particularly now that we have 800s on certificate, it could be an opportunity for us going forward to grow that business as cargo recovers because there's no doubt that things have slowed down right now.

That makes sense. And if I might, on the European JV, any updates on that? I know it's been six weeks, so probably not a lot new there, but just curious on how that's progressing.

Yeah. We're still working on getting the certificate finalized, and I think, Mike, you feel it will be done in March?

March or April.

March or April. And then, you know, we look to place a couple regional jets out there, you know, and we're talking to a number of carriers about, you know, operating those aircraft. I think the feeling that we have is, I mean, it's a very long-term project in that, you know, we think that this could be a platform, for example, for us to operate electric aircraft, which we think will be, you know, really in high demand in Europe, just given the direction things are going towards, you know, sort of environmentally friendly alternatives. And I think that, you know, we can continue to find a home for, you know, some of the regional jets out there that have been made excess, you know, sort of post-COVID. And particularly in the CRJ-900 or in Europe, CRJ-1000. And it's just a matter of finding the right customer to make that happen. So, you know, we continue to plug along. I think that, you know, we feel that it's just going to be good to have an operating certificate. And to be frank, I mean, the backstop always was just the fact that we have a certificate is valuable. You know, for what we have invested in it, we think we could easily get, frankly, a multiple of that back if we wanted, if we just were going to sell the certificate. So we've always utilized that method, you know, as a backstop. But we have wonderful partners over there, guys who have a tremendous amount of experience in Europe, who really is why we made the investment because we had so much confidence in them. And I think over time, you know, we'll be as well positioned to take advantage of opportunities that will develop in Europe. In particular, you know, given the gaps that have now occurred as a result of so many bankruptcies in the regional business over there and, you know, how it's, The regional business is much different there than it is here in terms of a lot of small carriers flying multiple pieces of equipment, different types of equipment. I think that our approach will find some opportunity with some of the flag carriers to provide capacity purchase services over the long term.

I appreciate the insight.

Speakers, I am showing no further questions at this time. You may proceed.

Okay, well, thank you, everybody. I think, you know, it's fair to say that, you know, we clearly have gone through a rough patch. We had a lot of work to do in terms of putting together multiple agreements all at the same time. You know, we barely mentioned, you know, some of the things like the RASPR agreement, the EDC agreement. You know, obviously, the Treasury, you know, we made a significant modification to the Treasury, who, by the way, was very helpful. And now we just have to put it together operationally. We are very focused on pilot production because clearly that makes a big, big difference. You know, for the last couple months, we've been on the plus side. In other words, you know, we're putting out more pilots than we're losing. You know, we want to see that number continue to increase. We've added, you know, sims. We've added instructors. We've employed CAE. So I'm hoping, and I think we believe that over time, We'll start to see the, you know, the benefit of all this, and it'll all come together in terms of a much more stable operating platform and, you know, renewed profitability. I also, it would be remiss not to mention the fact that, you know, through the wind down, we've been working very closely with American and maintained, you know, really good relationship with them. And I think that, you know, since we began the wind down, I think we've canceled two flights. You know, we really want to do a good job right to the last day with American. We appreciate their understanding of our situation. And certainly, you know, United has really stepped up and helped us. And it's a good thing to know so many people that we have over there. The support that we've gotten from United has been fantastic. And, you know, we're on the phone with them literally on the phone every day. And I have to tell you, we've been really appreciative of, you know, what they were able to do to help us work through this difficult period. So... With that, I'd like to thank everybody for joining us. We're going to continue to work hard, get the company turned around, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter.

That will conclude today's conference, and we thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Mesa Airlines Q1 fiscal year 2023 conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today's call. At that time, to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your touchtone phone. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please connect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Doug Cooper, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Cooper, you may now begin.

Doug Cooper Thank you, Christina, and welcome, everyone. to MESA's earnings conference call for its fiscal first quarter 2023 ended December 31st, 2022. On the call with me today are Jonathan Orenstein, MESA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brad Rich, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Michael Lotz, President, and Tork Zubek, Chief Financial Officer, and other members of the management team. Following our prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session for the Southside analysts. We also want to remind everyone on the call today that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements that are based on the company's current expectations and are not a guarantee of future performance. There could be significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by the forward-looking statements, including the risk factors discussed in our reports on file with the SEC. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements. In comparing results today, we will be adjusting all periods to exclude special items. Please refer to our fiscal first quarter earnings release, which is available on our website for the reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures. With that, I will turn the call over to Jonathan for his opening remarks. Jonathan?

Thank you, Doug, and thank you, everyone, for being on with us today. We're pleased to be speaking to you again after introducing several major developments at MESA on our fourth quarter call. six weeks ago. As you may know, we had a busy December quarter negotiating and finalizing significant agreements with our airline partners and other key financial parties. We expect these new agreements will substantially enhance our operational performance and both our income statement and balance sheet. Since our last call, we have been working diligently as we prepare to wind down our loss-making operation with American Airlines and transition our CRJ900 flying to United Airlines next month. For the quarter, we had an adjusted net loss of $4.3 million on revenue of $147.2 million. While traffic remains strong and our pilot pipeline has improved significantly, capacity remains constrained as we catch up with unprecedented attrition experience as a result of the industry-wide pilot shortage. Here's a quick overview of what we have recently accomplished. First and foremost, we eliminated our loss-making operation at American Airlines effective April 3rd, 2023. Pursuant to that wind down, United agreed to add up to 40 CRJ900s previously operated for American. To improve our balance sheet, we sold our remaining eight CRJ550s and agreed to sell down 11 CRJ900s and 30 GE engines, reducing approximately $90 million of debt and generating approximately $70 million of cash. Additionally, United replaced our $16 million balance on our revolving credit line and provided an additional $25 million loan. We also restructured our RASPRO leases and EDC debt. Finally, we implemented new pay scales with our pilots and a new agreement with our flight attendants. Looking forward, the current quarter is all about a successful transition. Working closely with United, we intend to keep all the related crew domiciles and maintenance bases open. With our significant focus on operations, we believe the new United 900 flying will perform at levels similar to our existing EJET flying at United. In some good news on the pilot front, we continue to see strong levels of applications and reduced attrition. Currently, our monthly pilot attrition declined and is now stabilized approximately near pre-COVID levels. This week, we announced a direct entry captain position for qualified candidates. Highlights of the program include a 24-month flow to United Airlines and an industry-leading $110,000 sign-on bonus. Combined with our industry-leading pay rates, we believe this may be the best opportunity in the history of regional aviation for pilots to advance their careers. We are continuing to focus on pilot training throughput and have increased our resources around it. Brad will get into more detail on this later on. Last fall, we officially launched our Mesa pilot development, or MPD program, and recently welcomed our first graduates to the Mesa regional pilot ranks. With our significantly increased pay scale and participation in United's AVA program, as well as our expanding training pipeline provided by MPD program and our new direct entry captain program, We believe MACE provides a reliable and rapid path for pilots to join the regional industry and transition to United Airlines. We are pleased to be within the United ecosystem and are committed to training, retaining, and promoting pilots through to United. I'm also pleased to announce that we are adding a 737-800 freighter to our DHL operation. We have taken delivery of the aircraft and expect it to enter service in March. This brings our total cargo fleet to three 737-400s and one next-gen 737-800. At this point, I'd like to turn to highlights from the past few months that speak to the leadership position that MESA is building in the future of regional aviation and the greater sustainability that we hope to help enable the industry in years ahead. The two electric flight partnerships we invested in with United, Archer, and ARC recently achieved significant milestones. Archer unveiled its new five-seat eVTOL, titled Midnight, in November. Midnight is set to provide a sustainable form of aviation that can service short-distance trips between regional airports and city centers. HART Aerospace also continued to make progress, meeting a number of milestones and garnering additional commercial aircraft orders. We believe MACE is the vanguard of innovation in eco-friendly electric aviation and will continue to assess opportunities going forward. Meanwhile, our European joint venture, Flight, is on track to complete its operating certificate this spring. While it initially operated regional jets, we believe Flight could also be a platform for us to expand new technology and eco-friendly flying in environmentally sensitive European markets. With that, I will hand it over to Brad Rich to go over more of the details of our operational performance this quarter.

Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon to everyone. I'd like to start by reviewing our quarterly operating results. In the December quarter, we flew 50,940 block hours, 9.6% below last quarter, roughly in line with our previous forecast. Our March quarter block hours are projected to be roughly flat versus the December quarter. Mesa, like many regional airlines, continues to contend with the challenges of the industry-wide pilot shortage on our block hour production. However, we finally have a line of sight to relief. As Jonathan mentioned, attrition has come down materially over the past few months and our classes are filled with a combination of new hires and captain upgrades. Pilot production remains our highest priority. We continue to increase our in-house training capacity from the additional CRJ and EJET instructors that we have hired. We have also contracted with CAE to provide both instructors and more sim capacity this year. We remain focused on our transition to United and are continuing to work closely with their teams to prepare facilities, crews, and maintenance efforts for CRJ900 flying. The rollout that we outlined on last quarter's call remains unchanged. We expect to operate our current 24 lines of flying with American through February 28th before reducing flights throughout March and ceasing American operations on April 3rd. We will begin operating CRJ900s for United on March 3rd and will transition all the flying by May. As previously mentioned, United is covering the expenses to reconfigure and rebrand the CRJ900 aircraft. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Tork to walk through our financial performance.

Thank you, Brad. I'll take this opportunity now to review our financial performance and our balance sheet. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, revenue was $147.2 million, relatively flat compared to $147.8 million in Q1 2022. Contract revenue fell by $8.4 million year-over-year, driven primarily by lower block hours, partially offset by increased block-hour revenue for new pilot pay scales. Pass-through and other revenue increased by $7.9 million, primarily due to EJET maintenance pass-through revenue and deferred revenue. MESA's Q1 2023 results include, per GAAP, the recognition of $5.3 million of previously deferred revenue versus the recognition of $4.2 million in Q1 2022. The remaining deferred revenue balance of $18.8 million will be recognized as flights are completed over the remaining terms of the contracts. On the expense side, Mesa's overall operating expenses for Q1 2023 were $144.7 million, down $7 million versus Q1 2022. This decrease was driven by a lower maintenance expense, which fell $10.7 million, or 18.1% versus Q1 2022, to $48.3 million. was primarily due to fewer seat checks than in the first quarter last year, as well as lower aircraft rent, which fell by $5.5 million, and depreciation and amortization expense, which fell by $5.8 million. The decline in depreciation and amortization expense is primarily due to reduced asset values as a result of assets held for sale and year-end impairments. These factors were partially offset by higher flight operations expense of $10.7 million, due to increased training costs and the implementation of higher pilot pay scales, as well as $3.7 million in intangible asset impairment. On the bottom line, we reported a net loss of $9.1 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $14.3 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, for Q1 2022. On an adjusted basis, MACE reported a loss of $4.3 million, or $0.12 per share, compared to a net loss of $9.3 million, or $0.26 cents per share a year ago. The adjusted loss of Q1 2023 excludes a $3.7 million impairment loss and another $1.7 million mark-to-market non-cash loss on our investments in equity securities. Adjusted results from Q1 2022 excluded a $6.5 million mark-to-mark non-cash loss on our investments in equity securities. Next, let me turn to cash and liquidity. Cash for the quarter, excluding restricted cash, decreased by $1.6 million from the prior quarter, ending September 30 of 2022 at $56.1 million, in line with the projection on our fourth quarter call. This amount excludes net proceeds from the sales that were not closed as of December period end, including our eight CRJ 550s, 11 900s, and the spare agents that John reviewed at the top of the call. Total debt at the end of the quarter was $701.3 million, up $86 million from the prior quarter. This amount includes $64.2 million corresponding to the GAAP reclassification from our operating lease to finance lease on 15 CRJ900. Additionally, we borrowed $25.5 million in the form of a term loan from United, of which $15 million is forgivable upon the meeting of certain performance criteria. During the quarter, we also made scheduled debt payments of $17.5 million, and finance lease payments of $3.5 million. As a reminder, we have $74 million of scheduled principal payment remaining in 2023, and after the repayment of debt associated with asset sales, we expect fiscal year 2023 year-end debt of approximately $535 million. This updated total from $435 million that we were expecting as of last quarter's call primarily reflects the net impact of reclassification of the RASPRO operating lease to a finance lease. With regard to fiscal full year 2023, given the ongoing major development that makes that we will not be providing specific financial guidance at this time, other than the block hours for the March quarter that was discussed by Brad earlier, and the total debt figure that I just mentioned. We would like to point out that this quarter had favorable adjustments of $7 million. Based on our transition with American, we expect our deferred revenue to decrease by $11 million next quarter. Additionally, given United's equity stake in MESA is 10%, our current share count is approximately $40 million. With that, I'd like to now turn it back over to Jonathan for closing remarks.

Thank you, Tork. In summary, our first fiscal quarter of 2023 was a critically important one for MESA and one in which we believe we achieved a lot and made significant progress. That said, we have a lot of work ahead of us. We continue to focus on pile development in order to increase our block-hour production first and foremost. At this point, please open up for additional questions that the analysts may have.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 on your phone and be sure that your line is unmuted. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1. Our first question today comes from Savi Saith with Raymond James. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Um, wondering with this, uh, December quarter, you know, you talked about losing about 5 million a month on the American contract and, and in light of that, it seems like the earnings result is pretty good. Is that a function of some of that deferred revenue showing up or if, you know, if this trend holds, why shouldn't we expect kind of profitability by, kind of the June quarter.

Hey, Savi, this is Tork. Yeah, we recognized a fair amount of deferred revenue just given the change in the contract term with American Airlines. That's the biggest change in the quarter.

Okay, so kind of going forward, I should kind of consider the underlying X stat as the base going forward.

I'm not quite clear. Savi, could you?

Yeah, so just adjust for the, I guess, as we think about the core united earnings power here, should we think about it as, you know, take out the revenue recognition, maybe take out, you know, $50 million in losses that will go away, and that's your core until you start building up your block hours? Is that how we should think about it?

Yeah, yes. We have some tail with American Airlines expenses that aren't covered for the next upcoming quarter. But yeah, if you defer or eliminate the deferred revenue, then yeah, that would be close to what we would expect moving forward.

Got it. And then if I might, on the pilot side, which is kind of good news, if kind of the attrition levels here hold at close to pre-pandemic levels, How long, given your kind of increased training throughput, how long do you think it will take to then be able to fly the full complement that you want to fly?

This is Jonathan. It's really dependent on, to some degree, the mix of aircraft. We are moving CRJs over, but, I mean, I think our preference and United's preference would be to fly as many of the 175s as we can And so we've got sort of two training pipelines going. I would suggest, depending on what you call maximum utilization, for example, if we could fly 11 and a half hours, we'd probably be at the outside, you know, call it, you know, it could be as long as 18 months, and that would be conservative. However, you know, in spite of the fact that we'd like to fly as much as possible, sometimes network is just not capable of getting that much time on every airplane. So, you know, if we were around 10 hours, you know, it could be as, you know, probably 12 months. you know, maybe a little better than that, you know, based on the current trends. But I do have to warn everyone. I mean, these trends are very volatile. And, you know, we got a good jump with what we did in terms of the pay rates and some of the programs we put in place. We've got, you know, a really strong development program now with Mesa pilot development. But as you know, one of the problems that has been created by this legislation is has been the fact that we've had this big attrition throughout the regional industry, and we're just running out of people to upgrade to captain, and that is becoming an overwhelming issue where you're gonna end up with trying to get people to 1,000 hours and get them to upgrade and not immediately get hired away by another carrier. Now, with the AVA program in place and with our pay structure, we think we will have addressed that to some degree, But there is definitely still a big logjam on the FOs that has been, again, another, you know, unforeseen consequence of this, you know, ill-conceived and ill-advised legislation.

Makes sense. That's helpful. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Helene Becker with Cal. Please, your line is open.

Thanks very much. operator. And thanks for the time everybody this afternoon. So just a couple of questions. And these are just kind of clarifying questions Tork. On the investment loss in the quarter. Can you just mention what that's related to? It was a big improvement from September to December. And I'm just wondering how I should think about that from December to March.

Yeah. So playing, this is one that, uh, you know, I have been involved in, so I can answer quickly. If you want to be able to judge whether we're going to have investment gain or loss, you just can look at the price of Archer because that's really all it amounts to is just the price of Archer. Uh, we are currently long as part of our deal, about 2.2 million shares of Archer. We have more coming down the road. But that really, and Tor, correct me, but I think that really is the entire mark to market is on Archer stock. Yes, that is.

Okay. And then my other question is just, again, a clarification question. And it's kind of what Savi asked, I think, just differently. As we think about the wind down of American, how am I thinking about, the block hour, the revenue components. Is the increase that we saw from $10 million to $18 million because that's where the United reimbursements are showing up related to the pilots and the decrease from $137 to $128 is related to the block hour decline? I don't mean to be stupid, but obviously I'm not getting it.

yeah so Elaine yeah our block hours were down about 41 percent uh from the year-over-year piece and so but you know our revenue was roughly flat that's because we did get um you know uh increase in in uh for pilot pay from the from United as well as you know we had the um uh the the um deferred revenue that we recognize in the quarter. Those are the two big pieces that made the overall revenue about flat with last year. Does that help? Moving forward, obviously, there's not a lot of deferred revenue to recognize. There'll be some that we'll recognize in other quarters, but moving forward, we'll have compensation for the new pilot rates, but in this next quarter, we also we still have the American wind down that we aren't getting fully compensated for pilots in that, just so you're aware.

Okay. That's very helpful. Thanks very much.

You bet, Helene.

Our next question comes from Andrew Dodora with Bank of America. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Hey, everyone. Good afternoon. Similar line of questioning to the revenues, but on the cost line, when we take a look at kind of cost per block hour in the quarter, it seems like kind of reset around, you know, $1,100 per block hour, I think 20% step up from where you were kind of trending in the back half of last year. Is this a good sort of run rate going forward, any one-timers in that number? I'm just trying to think of a baseline here given the new pilot pay, and I know a lot more training costs.

Hey, this is Mike Lotz. Hi, Andrew. I think the $1,100 is the only thing that will change down the road from that is that we are on the maintenance side probably a little lower than we would be on a normal run rate just because of the timing. We hit a peak last year, and then we're on the lower side of that. And then offsetting that, I think, is the pilot cost because we have so many pilots in training and you know we're hoping that that you know the attrition kind of levels out and we catch up then the pilot per block hour would start to come down certainly not to where it used to because of the pay scale difference but those are the i think the two items that that we need to continue to look at okay got it um let me

Jonathan, what is the risk that the CRJ flying for United just gets pushed out a little bit just in terms of, like, who's doing the retrofits for the planes? You know, is the space already locked in for this type of work? Just curious what you think the risk is there.

Thanks. You know, I think it's a fair question. I mean, it took a little time for us to come up with a LOPA that would work for everyone. We went back and forth a few times just to try to keep it as simple as possible, but I think we're able to do that. Now my understanding is the conversion – well, now the – excuse me, I take that back. There had been some discussion about changing the seats, but now we – you know, the position that we had always recommended was that we just have them remain at 76 seats. And so there won't be a change there. We're sprucing up the cabins. We're taking out – Brad, why don't you go?

Look, we don't expect any real delays or issues with the fleet itself. We've got a good transition plan. The plan's being executed. It involves, as Jonathan said, some refreshing of the cabin in some cases, not extensive, but I just call them more refreshes, and then exterior paint. We've got all that lined out and scheduled, and I don't expect any delays relative to the fleet.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say, and I think understandably, that, you know, obviously both American, excuse me, United and Mesa, you know, we're taking a reasonably cautious approach. We're not going to just throw 38 airplanes into service. I think we're going to just, you know, schedule them in over time and just make sure that everything goes smoothly. And so far the schedules that we've been receiving have been excellent. They've been very productive. It's going to keep all of our pilots in place. We do plan on opening up a new base in Denver, which is going to be very popular with our crews. And so, you know, we think the transition will, you know, will go well. And, again, the biggest variable, and I hate to keep saying this, but it's just it's not going to be equipment. It's not going to be, you know, our maintenance capability. It really boils down to pilots and, you know, attrition and our ability to continue to put out, you know, a good number of pilots through our training program. which we have worked really hard on expanding. And I think we've done a decent job, and we're starting to see some of those results.

Got it. Thank you.

This question comes from Michael Lindenberg with Deutsche Bank. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Oh, yeah. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Jonathan, just the 38 CRJ 900s, how do we think about them sort of longer term? Are they more of a stopgap measure once you start to staff up the Embraers that are currently parked? Like if we were to fast forward two or three years from now, is it 38 CRJ-900s or is it maybe a dozen? Is it 20 or is it going to be a core fleet? I'm just sort of thinking about it within the context of, you know, some of the restrictions out there within, you know, your partner's contracts, et cetera.

Yeah, no, obviously, what will come into play here is the scope restrictions. And, you know, just to be clear, I mean, we are well within the scope, we're not going to, you know, that's not not going to be an issue, obviously. But, you know, with that, I think the ultimate goal would be to us to operate, you know, all 80 of our, our ejects. So from that standpoint, there may not be room for for 900. Now, That being said, there are a lot of other operators that may or may not be able to operate, you know, the 76-seat aircraft that they have. There may be a way to consolidate a lot of the flying onto fewer shells. So I think that, you know, the 900s may go to 70 seats and, you know, fill in. So I think the idea, and, you know, and I feel pretty confident, you know, I would agree on this is, you know, we have training capability. and we've got almost 300 pilots flying the 900s. We're not going to just turn around and tell them we don't need them anymore. I'm pretty sure we'll figure out a way to keep everybody fully utilized. It's going to take a while for the industry to recover from this, and so I think there'll be room for those airplanes for a while. And I say for a while. I'm not saying for 10 years, but I would think that we'd be operating the airplanes two years down the road. I don't think that I don't think everyone will recover by then, and we'll still have room for those aircraft within the existing scope.

Jonathan, on that mark, is it still true that the CRJ-900s are potentially the lowest-cost 76-seaters in the market today? Those costs, as I recall, you really had a pretty meaningful advantage there historically. With the new pay rates, is that still the case? And what is the differential between in costs between maybe the E175 with 76 seats and the CRJ900 with 76 seats, you know, with the new LOPA? Is it a 10% better advantage on a block hour basis, 20%? Any color on that? Because as I recall, that was one of the unique competitive advantages of that shell.

Yeah. Well, look, the benefit on the 900s is clearly on fuel burn. It's about 8% more fuel effective, right? However, you know, when you look at regional aircraft and it's just so outsized that you have to take it into account, it really depends on where you are on your engines and what aircraft. I mean, you can normalize your engines, but the fact of the matter is, you know, there's probably aircraft out there that, you know, will come to an LLP event, which is, you know, almost a $5 million event, and it just will never be done. And so, you know, if you take that expense out, over the lifetime of the aircraft, that makes whatever aircraft it is is going to be very inexpensive. So everything really revolves around engine management and how you look at, you know, owning engines or, you know, leasing engines. You know, we had been five years ago, when I look back and, you know, clearly, given where we are, I don't think anyone would argue that we haven't made mistakes. But the one thing that we did do was make a lot of investment in engines. And we just realized that these engines would be strong assets. And we went out and literally started buying every engine we could get a hold of, used, new, it didn't matter. I mean, and we had, you know, 51 extra engines. And we just sold 30 to United. And, you know, we'll net somewhere between $50 and $60 million net of the debt. And, you know, we still have another 21 engines that we own. So, I mean, I think that it really revolves around where you are in the engine cycle. But, you know, pound for pound, the 900 is definitely a more fuel-efficient, faster, lower-cost alternative than an Embraer 175. Now, that being said, you know, on a shorter-haul flight, it doesn't make as much of a difference. And, you know, there is no doubt that the benefits of the cabin on the 175 is obviously very attractive. You know, the major carriers have no problems putting 175 into, you know, very highly traveled business routes, you know, shuttle markets, for example, that I don't think they would put a CRJ into. So, you know, there is offsetting benefits that, you know, inure to the 175 in terms of passenger comfort acceptance and, you know, the satisfaction.

And on that just last point, if I could just sneak in one more about capability, as I recall, that at least the CRJ700s, the capability that they had to go into some of the ski destinations, which is obviously a very important market for United. Can the CRJ900s go into those same ski, you know, the mountain destinations in, you know, whether it's Aspen, for example, the ones where it would, I don't think you can fly an E175 into Aspen fully loaded. I could be wrong on that. Do the CRJ900s have that same capability or are they just too heavy versus the 700s?

Well, you're right about the 175. There have been, you know, ongoing discussions regarding the 900s in terms of their capability, you know, depending on who you ask. But I think our view here is that in all probability the 900 would not work in, you know, places like Aspen or Telluride.

Okay.

It just probably would not work.

Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Thanks for the time.

Sure. Thank you.

Just a reminder to please press star one if you have a question at this time. Our next question comes from Savi Seith with Raymond James again. Go ahead, please. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks for the follow-up. I just wanted to kind of come back to that cargo announcement that you made that you have one more aircraft that you'll be flying there. I think previously you had three aircraft, but maybe the third was kind of a backup aircraft. If you can just provide an update on that. you know, what you think cargo block hours are going to be doing and how that program is progressing?

Yeah. So on the third aircraft, it's a 737-400. We haven't been particularly pleased with the aircraft and have had ongoing conversations with DHL to potentially replace that aircraft, you know, maybe, you know, with a newer 800. And we're adding this 800, which I personally feel that it really puts us in a sweet spot with DHL. I was just on the phone with them today. They've been very complimentary about our operation. They actually made a comment about how our people have really worked well with their people, and it was just good to hear that there will be opportunity. That being said, it's obviously taken a long time, and we've been patient. And given the downturn recently in cargo activity, It's probably going to be a little bit slower than we had hoped for. But we are going to add the fourth airplane. We'll look to figure out what we're going to do with 708, which is the third 737, which came into service. But that aircraft was, in fact, flying a full line. So we will now move from three full lines of flying to four full lines of flying. And, Brad, correct me if I'm wrong, but they do between like 100 and 120 hours a month, you know, about 100, 120 hours a month in utilization. So you can, you know, work the math from that.

That's super helpful. And is that, so is it still kind of a mildly profitable business, would you say, or is it kind of still, you need more scale to really drive profits there?

No, I, you know, we were, we were fortunate that, you know, like, like the other major carriers, DHL appreciated the fact that, you know, things have been difficult. And so we've made the transaction structured so that, you know, our feeling is on a run rate basis, you know, going forward, you know, we've been at break, you know, no worse than break even. And again, you know, we put a lot of money into the operation to start. So obviously we have a way to go to recoup our investment. But, you know, we now in the 737 business, we have a nice cargo business. And I think that over time, particularly now that we have 800s on certificate, it could be an opportunity for us going forward to grow that business as cargo recovers, because there's no doubt that things have slowed down right now.

That makes sense. And if I might, on the European JV, any updates on that? I know it's been six weeks, so probably not a lot new there, but just curious on how that's progressing.

We're still working on getting the certificate finalized, and I think, Mike, you feel it will be done in March?

March or April.

March or April. And then, you know, we look to place a couple regional jets out there, you know, and we're talking to a number of carriers about, you know, operating those aircraft. I think the feeling that we have is, I mean, it's a very long-term project in that, you know, we think that this could be a platform, for example, for us to operate electric aircraft, which we think will be, you know, really in high demand in Europe, just given the direction things are going towards, you know, sort of environmentally friendly alternatives. And I think that, you know, we can continue to find a home for, you know, some of the regional jets out there that have been made excess, you know, sort of post-COVID, and particularly in the CRJ-900 or in Europe CRJ-1000. And it's just a matter of finding the right customer to make that happen. So, you know, we continue to plug along. I think that, you know, we feel that it's just going to be good to have an operating certificate. And to be frank, I mean, the backstop always was just the fact that we have a certificate is valuable. You know, for what we have invested in it, we think we could easily get, frankly, a multiple of that back if we just were going to sell the certificate. So we've always utilized that method, you know, as a backstop. But we have wonderful partners over there, guys who have a tremendous amount of experience in Europe, who really is why we made the investment because we had so much confidence in them. And I think over time, you know, we'll be as well positioned to take advantage of opportunities that will develop in Europe. In particular, you know, given the gaps that have now occurred as a result of so many bankruptcies in the regional business over there and, you know, how it's, The regional business is much different there than it is here in terms of a lot of small carriers flying multiple pieces of equipment, different types of equipment. You know, I think that our approach will find some opportunity with some of the flag carriers to provide capacity purchase services over the long term.

Thanks. Appreciate the insight.

Speakers, I am showing no further questions at this time. You may proceed.

Okay, well, thank you, everybody. I think, you know, it's fair to say that, you know, we clearly have gone through a rough patch. We had a lot of work to do in terms of putting together multiple agreements all at the same time. You know, we barely mentioned, you know, some of the things like the RASPR agreement, the EDC agreement. You know, obviously, the Treasury, you know, we made a significant modification to the Treasury, who, by the way, was very helpful. And now we just have to put it together operationally. We are very focused on pilot production because clearly that makes a big, big difference. You know, for the last couple months, we've been on the plus side. In other words, you know, we're putting out more pilots than we're losing. You know, we want to see that number continue to increase. We've added, you know, sims. We've added instructors. We've employed CAE. So I'm hoping, and I think we believe that over time, We'll start to see the, you know, the benefit of all this, and it'll all come together in terms of a much more stable operating platform and, you know, renewed profitability. I also, it would be remiss not to mention the fact that, you know, through the wind down, we've been working very closely with American and maintained, you know, really good relationship with them. And I think that, you know, since we began the wind down, I think we've canceled two flights. You know, we really want to do a good job right to the last day with Americans. We appreciate their understanding of our situation. And certainly, you know, United has really stepped up and helped us. And it's a good thing to know so many people that we have over there. The support that we've gotten from United has been fantastic. And, you know, we're on the phone with them literally on the phone every day. And I have to tell you, we've been really appreciative of, you know, what they were able to do to help us work through this difficult period. So... With that, I'd like to thank everybody for joining us. We're going to continue to work hard, get the company turned around, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter.

That will conclude today's conference, and we thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time.