AerCap Holdings N.V.

Good day and welcome to the Aircap Holdings NV Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results. Today's conference is being recorded and a transcript will be available following the call on the company's website. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Joseph McGinley, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2021 conference call. With me today is our Chief Executive Officer, Ingus Kelly, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pete Uhass. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind you that some statements made during this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. ERCAP undertakes no obligation other than that imposed by law to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, information, or circumstances that arise after this call. Further information concerning issues that could materially affect performance can be found in ERCAP's earnings release dated July 29, 2021. A copy of the earnings release and conference call presentation are available on our website at ercap.com. This call is open to the public and is being webcast simultaneously at aircap.com and will be archived for replay. We will shortly run through our earnings presentation and will allow time at the end for Q&A. As a reminder, I would ask that analysts limit themselves to one question and one follow-up. I will now turn the call over to Ingus Kelly.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2021 earnings call. I am pleased to report strong port of earnings with $250 million of net income or $1.92 of earnings per share. The positive headline for the quarter is that the airline industry is witnessing an unprecedented and rapid recovery in air travel in many of the world's major markets. For air cap, this has led to increased demand for our aircraft and a significant increase in our cash flows for the period. Looking ahead, we expect further improvement for the remainder of the year, With solid earnings, a strong balance sheet, and an improving leasing environment, we are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for AirCap. When we look at the global leasing environment, we are becoming increasingly optimistic, with clear signs of a rebound in markets around the world. There may, of course, be some setbacks along the way, but there can be no doubting the huge progress made in the past six months, in particular to get the world flying again. The global vaccination program is clearly having a positive impact, reducing infection rates and serious illness. This is giving many governments around the world the confidence to relax restrictions on daily life, including air travel. According to the CDC, early evidence in the U.S. suggests that 99.5% of the COVID-related deaths in the last six months were amongst beyond vaccinated. This reflects the efficacy of the vaccines even against the highly contagious Delta variant in protecting against serious illness caused by COVID-19. On slide four, you will see the clear link between the growth in air travel and the percentage of people vaccinated. In the U.S., Europe, and China, which together made up 67% of the world's commercial flights taken in 2019, there has been a marked improvement. TSA data from the U.S. shows passenger throughput is consistently around 2 million passengers a day, which is approximately 80% of 2019 levels. China is flying over 13,000 flights a day, which is more than 105% of the same period in 2019. And in Europe, they surpassed 25,000 daily flights in July, which is around 70% of 2019 levels. These numbers show the strength of the rebound as well as the fact there is plenty of room for air travel to grow further, which will feed into stronger cash flows for our airlines and for AirCap. The EU Digital COVID Certificate is now accepted by all 27 EU countries, of which 20 have already opened their borders to American citizens for non-essential travel. We hope in the near term that this action by the Europeans will be reciprocated by the U.S. administration. This would be particularly meaningful for the transatlantic market, which is one of the most important and profitable routes in the world. So while the pace of vaccination rollout varies by country, it is clear from those countries that have made significant progress that the recovery in air travel follows swiftly thereafter. To that end, AirCap has made a contribution of $100,000 to support the equitable access and scale-up of COVID-19 vaccinations in lower-income countries through the Gavi COVAX program. Our industry will not be the same until everyone has the opportunity to be vaccinated. Getting back to AirCap, we are also seeing this recovery expressing itself in our numbers, including higher cash collections, increased leasing activity, and fewer requests for assistance from our airline customers. While there undoubtedly are parts of the world which continue to face challenges, in the second quarter, AirCap saw a 30% reduction in trade receivables, a 10% reduction in the deferral balance, and our operating cash flow was up as a result. So as the recovery continues to gather pace, we too should benefit from a further uplift in our collections. On the leasing activity front, we signed lease agreements for 51 aircraft in the quarter, including 13 wide-body leases. In addition to this, we also executed agreements with Delta Airlines for the long-term lease of seven A350 aircraft, which will help support Delta's fleet modernization and efficiency targets. This was a landmark deal, and we look forward to further enhancing our relationship with Delta. We also monetized a part of our claim from LATAM Airlines for $186 million, and we expect to receive several hundred million dollars more subject to court confirmation by year end. Turning to the GCAS transaction, we continue to make progress on the various integration work streams to ensure we are ready to hit the ground running from day one. We have already received approvals in a number of important jurisdictions so far, including the United States and Europe. This is in line with our expectations, and we continue to expect a fourth quarter closing. We have followed GCAS closely as our largest peer for many years. When we were completing our due diligence for the transaction, we very much liked what we saw then. Now, as the recovery takes hold much faster than was anticipated in our underwriting case, we are even more enthusiastic about this transaction. I truly believe that our combined company will be able to offer a best-in-class service to our customers and emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever. So as we look forward, the global vaccine rollout is proving effective. More and more countries are opening up to air travel, and the demand for aircraft leasing is growing stronger. These factors are all contributing to a stronger financial performance for AirCap. I am so proud of what our people and our company have achieved over the course of the last 18 months. We have successfully navigated our way through the toughest stress test imaginable and have emerged with a strong balance sheet, lower leverage, and an exciting transaction that will provide benefits to AirCap for many years to come. We're truly excited about what lies ahead. With that, I will hand the call over to Pete for a review of our financial performance. Thank you.