AerCap Holdings N.V.

Please stand by. Good day and welcome to the AIRCAPS Q2 2024 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 2024 conference call. With me today is our Chief Executive Officer, Ingus Kelly, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pete Ugas. 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. AERCAP 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 RCAP's earnings release dated August 1st, 2024. A copy of the earnings release and conference call presentation are available on our website at rcap.com. This call is open to the public and is being webcast simultaneously at rcap.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 Angus Kelly.

Thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2024 earnings call. I am pleased to report another quarter of strong earnings for Aircap, generating adjusted net income of $592 million and adjusted earnings per share of $3.01. These results reflect widespread demand for our assets, strong cash collections, and our constant focus on execution. As a result, I am pleased to increase our earnings guidance for the year from $9.20 to approximately $10.25, not including gains on sale in the second half of the year. On capital allocations, I am delighted to announce more organic growth this quarter with the closing of a 36 aircraft transaction with our customer Spirit Airlines. This is the third transaction in the last seven months that we have closed on a bilateral basis with the customer, taking the total purchase commitments to over 50 NEO and MAX aircraft. This is, of course, in addition to the transaction for 150 CFM LEAP engines with SES. that we announced at our capital markets date. Year to date, we have spent $3.2 billion on flight equipment and returned over $720 million to our shareholders in the form of stock repurchases and dividends. Importantly, this was all done without levering up our balance sheet. We are also announcing another dividend of 25 cents per share for Q2, which will be payable in early September. These highlights showcase the power of the AirCap platform. As I mentioned, demand for aviation assets continues to be robust as reflected in our consistently high levels of activity. Over the last three months, AirCap executed 246 transactions across aircraft, engines, and helicopters, comprising of 162 lease agreements, 47 purchases, and 37 sales. The rate of aircraft extensions, which we discussed at our recent Capital Markets Day, continues to be elevated at over 80% in Q2. On the sales side, the shortage of aircraft in the system is supporting strong gains on sale, leading to unlevered margins of over 20% in the quarter, or approximately 1.7 times book equity. 90% of our sales revenue was generated from sales to airlines and other leasing companies who are keen to gain access to aircraft. And I expect this will continue to be the case for some time. Of note, at the end of Q2, the US is now our largest market at 14.6% of revenues. This is due to the combination of strong placements of aircraft into the US, as well as strong demand from buyers for our Chinese aircraft. As a result, China now represents 14% of our assets down from over 20% at its peak. On the purchase side, our investment in new technology equipment continued with the delivery of 25 new aircraft, including A320neos, 737 Maxes, A220s, 787s, and A330neos from our order book. We also took delivery of a further 20 engines, which were mostly new technology LEAP engines, from CFM. As I said at the beginning of the call, one particularly notable deal that we signed just this week was with Airbus and Spirit Airlines in the US. We have agreed to purchase 36 A320neo family aircraft. This transaction results in AirCap assuming 36 aircraft from Spirit's order book and the related pre-delivery payments. This is the third example in the last seven months where we've been able to execute a bilateral transaction to acquire aircraft with a customer that results in a win-win outcome for our customer and for AirCap. These aircraft are set to deliver in 2027 and 2028, which match well with the profile of our existing order book and is far sooner than we would otherwise have been able to negotiate directly with Airbus and gives us an opportunity to support a long-term customer simultaneously. Furthermore, we will also backstop up to 52 A320neo family aircraft in Spirit's order book, if needed. These additional aircraft would deliver from 2029 onwards. This deal takes our total aircraft added this year to over 50, and I am confident there will be similar opportunities for organic growth to come The smaller number of aircraft delivering into the system as a result of the OEM delays has provided some respite to airlines from a financing perspective, but this will change over time and AirCap is well positioned to take advantage of it. This is another example of where AirCap sets itself apart with its customers. We can step in when others cannot because of the ability, speed and experience to execute rapidly and in scale. Similar to our approach to share repurchases and dividends, our approach to organic growth is also measured and disciplined, and ensures that we generate strong long-term returns for our shareholders with an appropriate level of risk. Aircap's cash flows are the strongest in the industry, not just on an absolute basis, but on a relative basis also. We are generating approximately 25% more operating cash flow per dollar of assets than any of the other large leasing companies, and this also sets us apart. This discipline, along with the ongoing strength in our cash flows, was recently recognized by all three major credit rating agencies, where AirCap was upgraded to BAA1 by Moody's, BBB Plus by S&P, and our BBB Flat rating was put in positive outlook by Fitch, These are the highest ratings of any aircraft that soar in the world on a standalone basis and are a clear appreciation of how we run the company in a balanced and sustainable way. So in summary, this was another great quarter for AirCap with broad-based demand for assets, strong cash generation, and positive momentum on our credit ratings. We continue to see attractive opportunities to deploy capital through opportunistic organic investment, the delivery of our order book, ongoing share repurchases, and quarterly dividends. I look forward to showing the evidence of this strategy in the quarters and years to come. With that, I will hand the call over to Pete for a detailed review for financial performance and favorable outlook for 2024. Thank you.